Google

Recently, Google has been a big news item, both for its refusal to comply with a Department of Justice subpoena and its decision to censor its content in Google 中国. Google was very popular on the web for refusing to comply with the Department of Justice, but that popularity turned sour with the China decision.

Personally, I agree with Google on both counts. The department of Justice really doesn't have a reason to subpoena one million urls, as they can get more relevant information by running their own searches. The whole thing smells rotten.

As for the issue with Google 中国, Google was put in a tough situation. If they didn't comply with China, they would be blocked, which would make them a whole lot less useful. While it did ruin their image for the time being, it was the right thing to do. Resisting on moral grounds is fine when doing so does hurt more than it helps. However, if Google had done so, their services would have not been available. True, the filter does take away some of Google's utility. However, being blocked leaves Chinese users without any utility from Google and still in a censored position. Google resisting would not have done any good and would in fact be more evil, IMO. Whether they their motives were in their pocketbook or not, they did the right thing.