What was Yahoo's role in China's prosecution of journalist Shi Tao?

[swag]

Active/passive? Nefarious/Compliant? Complicit/Oblivious?

An Interesting link

http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/english/2005/06/200506301136.shtml

and thread

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/43681

from Metafilter

July 23, 2005

Yahoo provided "evidence" to prosecute Shi Tao QUOTE (June 30, 2005)In the court statement againt Shi Tao on June 2nd, the second evidence was provided by Yahoo. The Statement said: User information provided by Yahoo(HK) shows that the IP 218.76.8.201 (active at 23:32:17 on April 20, 2004) is used by: Tel.:[phone], user's company is....., user's address is.... (boxun.com) This is the first case that shows publicly that Yahoo helps China government to prosecute an Internet user - journalist. END QUOTE
posted by hank at 11:14 AM PST

backstory from

http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/China01july05na.html

New York, June 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the Hunan Supreme People's Court decision to uphold the conviction of journalist Shi Tao on charges of "illegally leaking state secrets abroad." The ruling makes it more likely that Shi will serve out the bulk of a 10-year prison sentence for e-mailing to the editor of a news Web site his notes about propaganda officials' instructions to his magazine.

"We are outraged that the Chinese government considers dissemination of information about its propaganda strategy to be a form of espionage," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "We call on Chinese authorities to release Shi and end the practice of jailing journalists."

In a verdict dated June 2, the court rejected the appeal filed by Shi's defense lawyer, Mo Shaoping, in early May, according to a court document obtained by the Chinese Rights Defenders, an advocacy group. The journalist was not given a hearing in the appeal, which was submitted in writing.

Officials from the Changsha security bureau detained Shi near his home in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, on November 24, 2004. Authorities confiscated his computer and other documents and warned his family to stay quiet about the matter.

. . . more