SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Internet search engine giant Yahoo! reportedly has settled a lawsuit concerning imprisoned Chinese dissidents.
The lawsuit, settled in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, was filed by families of the dissidents, alleging they were jailed because Yahoo! had cooperated with Chinese authorities, CNN reported citing court documents. The settlement's terms were not made public.
The CNN report said the lawsuit was filed by the wife of a dissident sentenced by the Chinese Communist government to 10 years in prison for sending out pro-democracy blogs. The suit was joined by an imprisoned reporter for a Chinese newspaper and others not identified.
The woman told CNN her husband was sentenced in 2002 but she received the documents only recently. The documents itemized information allegedly provided by Yahoo! to the government, the report said.
The CNN report said Yahoo! executives told the detainees' families they will do everything they can to get the men released.
There have been similar allegations against other U.S. companies, including Google and MSN, accusing them of censoring their Internet search engines in China. The companies say they block content only when they're given a legal order from Chinese authorities and customers are informed.
