Jack Ma of Alibaba (and Yahoo China)

internet - Jack Ma defends Yahoo on Shi Tao case

Alibaba's CEO Jack Ma, now also in charge of Yahoo China, has defended the latter company in the way it handled the Shi Tao case. Debate has been raging on whether (1) it is ethical for a company to help the Chinese authorities to convict a journalist for murky charges on leaking state secrets (2) they were legally obliged to do so.
Ma is clear, he would do it again, he tells in the Financial Times.

“I would do the same thing,” Mr Ma said. “I tell my customers and my colleagues, that’s the right way to do business.”... Officials at Yahoo on Wednesday could not be reached for comment. The company had previously stated that it only released information to the authorities “when legally compelled to do so, and then only in a way that complies with both local laws and our privacy policy”. But the US portal has declined to give details of the process or explain why its Hong Kong business apparently provided information on Mr Shi even though it has a separate legal system from mainland China.

The latter is the real issue: there was no legal obligation for a Hong Kong unit to comply with those mainland regulations. There are good ways to avoid getting into a position where you have to, without even entering the first argument on whether you should support a government.
Wonder BTW what is going to happen to the French bloggers who called for violence and 'organized' riots in French cities.
Just like cars, weblogs are tools. You can do good and evil with those tools, webloggers are not by definition not guilty of any crime.