[jhancock]

There are multiple facets to the GWF's raison d'être. Most touched on in this thread. One area not given much voice is China's desire to handle legal issues in its domain. If you want a web site in China, you have to have a person (usually through a company) that is the agent responsible for the site. This person must be a Chinese national. That person is the one that has to show up in court if the site/company gets sued. If China is serious about nurturing its legal system, its a perfectly valid approach that parties conducting business in China be required to answer to the legal system when required. This means that if Facebook wants to serve up to Chinese people, they need a Chinese company and agree to be subject to Chinese law for what they serve up in China. Many may not agree with the restrictions on what you can serve up, but this is a different aspect of the GWF.

[JoshTriplett]

I don't consider that a "perfectly valid approach". It precisely matches what the US wants to do with SOPA: regulate foreign sites in absentia and block them if they don't comply.