Part of the deal
The regulation is just one more part of China's latest attempt to monitor the Internet in a bid to clamp down on illegal activities that began back in 1994.
Internet cafés in China, for instance, use a real name registration system, which verifies the ID card's of customers before they can log on. It now applies to all 1,000 Internet cafes in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.
However, even skeptics admit that such system does help fight crime. In Beijing, it only took the police 58 hours to apprehend Shi Baikui, who stole several valuable relics from the Palace Museum before logging on at an Internet café with his real name.
But that particular case does not justify the high price of the software.
The software is similar to those used in Internet cafés, and business owners should not pay for it, said Yi Shenghua, a Beijing-based lawyer at Ying Ke Law Firm who opposes the regulation.
Another lawyer told The Beijing News, on condition of anonymity, that although the government is authorized to introduce regulations to protect internet access, it has no right to tell business owners to install certain brands of software.
"There is a law stating that a helmet must be worn while riding a motorcycle," the lawyer said, "but it does not state that you have to buy one certain brand of helmet, which costs 20,000 yuan."
The district-level public security bureau declined to comment on the issue, while the Beijing municipal public security bureau said last Wednesday that it has been studying the issue, but declined to make further comment about the criticisms.
A report in The Beijing News said that according to the public security department, the regulation introduced in the capital would be applied across the country.
Café owners in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, who were contacted by Southern Weekend, said they had not been affected by the regulation and still provide WiFi service.
However, they all expressed concern over the regulation implemented in Beijing's Dongcheng District. A duty manager who works for a Starbucks in Shenzhen said he expected a loss of customers if the regulation takes effect.
In addition, the developer of the program, Shanghai Rain-Soft Software, did not comment. A receptionist at the company said: "Our manager has been away on a business trip and won't be back until August, so there is no one available to explain the software."
