Remember Green Dam, that software that had the world grilling China for its stepped-up censorship efforts? Well, that thing isn’t dead yet — but it’s not coming back alive either. Green Dam was quickly shelved like a few hours before the July 1, 2009 deadline, and word has it that it’s coming back — but in a very “mum” way.

For one thing, it won’t be required on all computers — and we haven’t heard much about a Mac version. What’s most likely to happen is that it’ll be required in schools and Internet cafés — places that have never been (at least not recently) associated with libre speech, but for the masses who buy their PCs it won’t be required. Ministers have been quoted as saying that the software will not be made compulsory and be installed by force on every new computer (and at the same time, they’ve also criticized the critics for politicizing the whole issue).

Green Dam has made a lot of concessions (so to speak). First, it became required — then un-installable — then optional — then shelved — and now, again optional (this time, it’s likely to be “very” optional). It looks like the censors have to put up with the force that is the vox populi.