Freegate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Developer(s) | Dynamic Internet Technology Inc. (DIT) |
|---|---|
| Initial release | ? |
| Stable release | 6.86 / 08/07/2009 |
| Operating system | Windows |
| Available in | English, Chinese, Persian, Spanish |
| Type | Proxy system |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | http://www.dit-inc.us/freegate |
Freegate is software that enables internet users from mainland China, Iran, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, among others, to view websites blocked by their governments. The program takes advantage of a range of open proxies, which allow users to penetrate firewalls used to block web sites.[1] Developer Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT) estimates Freegate has 200,000[1] users. The maintainer and CEO of DIT is Bill Xia.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Creation and funding
Freegate was created by Falun Gong practitioners[3] and has been financed by a United States government agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors.[4] [5][6] In 2005 alone, the US government spent US$ 685,000 on Freegate.[7] Freegate is also funded by a group called Human Rights in China,[5] which in turn is financed by the National Endowment for Democracy a U.S. non-profit organization.[8]
Since January 1, 2009, Freegate's servers are granting free access only to users in mainland China. [9] DIT plans to offer a shareware license to users in other countries. But as of June 2009, no price or date of availability has been announced.[10]
[edit] Trojan horse reports
The Financial Times, citing a member of staff at Symantec in mainland China, reported that Norton AntiVirus identified Freegate as a trojan horse. There were initial fears that the reports may be a ploy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities to encourage removal of the software from computers,[11] but it was soon delisted as a threat. Symantec explained that its detection was based on the software operating similarly to various Trojan horses, based on the use of open proxies to penetrate firewalls used to block web sites, but that it had modified its detection to exclude Freegate.[1] However, Spyware Guide lists it as a Trojan.[12]
[edit] See also
- Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
- Golden Shield Project
- Tor (anonymity network) - a free product sponsored by the Tor Project that implements onion routing where web connections are repeatedly encrypted and then sent through several proxies making tracing more difficult.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c John Leyden,Freegate is not Trojan horse, says Symantec, The Register, September 16 2004
- ^ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_08/b3972061.htm
- ^ Testimony of Shiyu Zhou, Deputy Director of the Global Internet Freedom Consortium Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, Hearing on Global Internet Freedom: Corporate Responsibility and the Rule of Law, 20 May 2008.
- ^ Susan L. Shirk: China: Fragile Superpower. Oxford University Press 2007, p. 93.
- ^ a b Geoffrey A. Fowler: Chinese Censors of Internet Face “Hacktivists” in US. In: Wall Street Journal, 14 February 2006.
- ^ Philip P. Pan: Free Software Takes Users Around Filters. Washington Post, 21 February 2006;
Chipping Away at China's Great Firewall, Public Broadcasting Service, 11 April 2006;
K. Oanh Ha: Hackers, activists challenge Beijing's Internet police: Piercing China's great firewall. Mercury News, 8 July 2006. - ^ Michelle W. Lau: Internet Development and Information Control in the People’s Republic of China Congressional Research Service Report for the United States Congress, 22 November 2005, table 1 “International Broadcasting Bureau Funding for Counter-Censorship Technology”.
- ^ cf. Project Database of the NED.
- ^ John Markoff, New York Times: Iranians and Others Outwit Net Censors, April 30, 2009.
- ^ Shareware version Freegate www.dit-inc.us.
- ^ John Leyden,Symantec labels China censor-busting software as Trojan, The Register, September 14 2004
- ^ Freegate, Spyware Guide, retrieved 2007-10-08 (Researchers note:- These may be two separate programs)
