Banning them actually has the opposite effect - aren't we trying to spread democracy? Dictators <i>want</i> their people to be isolated, so that they don't know that there is a better world out there. I won't be surprised if China welcomes Google's departure.<p>By arming the people with tools, anything to spread information, we're actually helping take down the dictators. Have you guys heard about the people near the border of North Korea (on the "safe" side), attaching radio receivers to balloons and flying them into North Korea? The citizens of North Korea are walled off from the rest of the world and don't have access to information.<p>By giving them information, and allowing them to share it among themselves, we can sow seeds of dissent (so to speak), so that they can organize an uprising (so to speak) to demand a better quality of life ... and take down the government.<p>I'm not so much advocating starting a riot, I'm just saying that our sanction on tools and information to them is having the opposite effect of what is genuinely good for the folks in the country.