Not a good thing...

Austin Bay writes about the recent lawsuit against Yahoo.

First of all, let's be honest, there was an assumption of known risk by the plaintiffs. That said, China's laws regarding freedom of speech make McCain-Feingold look good.

But Yahoo is the wrong party to attack. Partially because they were caught in the middle of a rock and a hard place, and partially because their good will is probably what is needed to help deal with China's censorship policies over the long run.

The fact is, when you do business in a country outside the US, you'd better understand that things get done differently. The PRC has not been averse to what is for all intents and purposes theft, including via piracy and failure to respect intellectual property.

Yahoo had no good options. They aren't the bad guys here.