Today is a day for good news! Freedom for Chinese people is of course tied up with freedom for Chinese bloggers, and microsoft have made a potentially costly decision which I applaud.

Microsoft amends blog shutdown policies "The Redmond software company, operator of a popular blogging technology called MSN Spaces, said Tuesday that it will endeavor to make blogs available to users elsewhere even if Microsoft decides it is legally obliged to block them in a particular country.

The company also pledged to provide users with a clear notice that it has shut down a Web site when the decision to do so stemmed from a legal mandate. Previously, it has simply said the content was unavailable."

Where we'll see whether the policy is meaningful or not is the first time the state comes to Microsoft ... and says, "So you're publishing to the world the subversive political statements of somebody online. Who is it?'" he said. "Does Microsoft fold or stand pat?"