Unethically, I'm copying verbatim a tiny article from a magazine I read:
"Microsoft stumbled in the ethical minefield of doing business in China last week, admitting it pulled an outspoken Chinese journalist's blog from its MSN Spaces blog-hosting service."
"Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have been criticized for cooperating with Chinese authorities and censoring Chinese-language search results to eliminate keywords such as 'human rights' and 'democracy'."
I'd like to point out that the censorship isn't just for Chinese-language results, though perhaps these companies only censor in Chinese. While I was there (in Beijing for Christmas! what a trip!) I couldn't resist the urge to try a few sensitive searches on my own.
Among others, 'Falun Gong' was apparently a blocked search. Google, Yahoo, and MSN all timed out whenever I did a search for that keyword. Other searches came back just fine, but sensitive words timed out. I even checked for an HTTP response code indicating I'd been denied, but there was nothing.
The Great Firewall does not echo.
So that's a cool story. But my real reason for posting was that I want to remember this topic as a potential issue to discuss in my final paper for my ethics class this semester. Is it unethical for MS to comply with Chinese authorities when doing business in China? Doesn't seem so to me.