Several PC makers were including controversial Internet-filtering software with computers shipped in China on Thursday despite a government decision to postpone its plan to build such a step mandatory.

Beijing’s decision that week to delay the requirement that the filtering software — known as Green Dam — be pre-installed or supplied on disk with all computers sold in China averted a possible trade clash with the United States and Europe. But the move by some makers to include the software anyway could re-ignite complaints by Chinese Web users.

additionally Thursday, a government newspaper said regulators will revive the plan to produce Green Dam mandatory at some point, a move that would disappoint opponents who hoped the government would drop the effort.

Taiwan’s Acer Inc. — the world’s No. 3 PC maker — Sony Corp. and China’s Haier Group said they were shipping Green Dam on disks with computers for sale in China. China’s Lenovo Group, the

No. 4 producer, said it would offer the software pre-installed or on disk. Taiwan’s Asus Inc. said it was preparing to supply Green Dam disks with PCs. Taiwanese laptop maker BenQ Inc. said the system was on the hard drives of its computers.

Acer was supplying Green Dam considering disks were already packed with PCs before the government postponed the plan, that had been due to take effect Wednesday, said a company spokeswoman, Meng Lei. Lenovo said it plus was going ahead with plans made before the Green Dam order was postponed.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s top PC manufacturer, said it was working with the U.S. government to get more knowledge and declined to comment further. No. 2 Dell Inc. said it was not including Green Dam with its PCs.

Chinese authorities said the software is needed to shield children from violent and obscene material online. But experts who examined…

Original post by dhiram