There has been much yammering about civilizing the Internet here in China for the past year. We've had it from Hu Jintao, we've had it very recently from the Ministry of Public Security. And we get it on a pretty much nonstop basis from the press. Unfortunately morality seems be outrunning the actual laws. It turns out that you can still have a more-or-less legal n*de Web chat in China. Could this be a new sideline business for me?

Well, not if you're lucky!

It turns out that Beijing prosecutors just lost a case against a housewife who was conducing n*de Webchats online as a sideline business because of the small technicality that there was no law against it.

[Officers] investigating the case found that nude chat rooms were not defined in China's pornography laws, an oversight the official Xinhua news agency described as a legal "blind spot".

Whoops.

The story is here. Who knows? Perhaps there is a law and the judge was a secret fan. But if not, I'd expect that "blind spot" to be erased in a hurry. Better get those racy Webchats in while you can.

Note: My editor wishes it known that this site does not endorse racy Webchats.

Update: The latest government call to purify the Internet is covered here. Expect more as we work up toward the upcoming Party Congress.