OP says "we never saw Google shut down its service in protest" Do you remember this headline? "Google Shuts China Site in Dispute Over Censorship" [1] Google

OP says "we never saw Google shut down its service in protest" Do you remember this headline? "Google Shuts China Site in Dispute Over Censorship" [1] Google withdrew from the largest, fastest-growing gold-rush market because censorship violated their principles. Show me one other large company in any industry that has taken a stand like this. Not Microsoft. Not Cisco. Not Bloomberg. [0] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/technology/23google.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/technology/23google.html