Image source: Yaraon!
More details about this will be updated soon.
via Yaraon!
Saturday 30 June 2012
To LOVE-Ru Darkness TV Anime to be Aired This Fall
More details about this will be updated soon.
via Yaraon!
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Anonymous Declares War on Japan Over Illegal Downloads
Hacker collective Anonymous has declared open season on the Japanese government for its passage of a draconian ban on illegal downloads and ripping, briefly taking down several government websites in a series of cyber-attacks.
The “Personal Illegal Downloads Punishment Act,” was recently proposed by the opposition LDP and their cultist stooges the Koumeito, and sailed through the Diet with no debate or opposition – 221 for, versus 12 against, with only the fringe left-wing maniacs of the Communists and Social Democrats, and a single Democrat, voting against.
As might be expected, the music industry’s belief that it will miraculously boost its declining sales was the most vocally espoused argument in favour of the law.
The most significant provision of the law is to punish offences of unauthorised downloads of copyrighted commercial audiovisual content with a maximum of 2 years in jail and ¥2,000,000 in fines.
The law also bans all ripping where it involves circumventing a protection system – which, in the best tradition of poorly conceived laws, apparently manages to leave ripping audio CDs legal as there is no protection system involved, whilst banning all format shifting of DVDs and BDs.
The download portion of the law comes into effect in October, whilst the ripping ban is due in January.
Some summary points about the “illegal download” law as it is currently understood:
Downloading copyrighted material was already technically illegal since 2010, but no penalties were attached
The law only applies to commercially (paid-for) distributed copyrighted audiovisual recordings
As a result the law actually leaves games, software, manga and text out – all these are still “legal” to download illegally
There are mixed opinions as to whether “downloading” includes caching or streaming – it has been pointed out that it may well ban YouTube if it does, and the final decision probably rests with police and how much they want to arrest a given person
It is a “shinkokuzai” law – for police to act, there has to be a complaint from a victim
This means police need a specific complaint to act upon – it seems unlikely copyright holders will be able to obtain this kind of information themselves in the case of private downloads, although public downloads are another matter
However, police have shown themselves willing to independently goad copyright holders into pressing charges by providing them with information from unrelated cases
As it potentially criminalises most of the computer-using population of Japan, there is some suspicion that police intend to use their new powers either to bring additional charges against people whose computers they have seized as a matter of course, or to initiate house searches in the hopes of finding additional offences with which to charge victims.
If Japanese police follow their typical pattern of behaviour (as they have done with uploaders), they will likely not crack down hard on all downloaders and infringing sites, but instead make occasional examples of offenders, or use the law to bring extra charges against people arrested for other reasons (handy if the original charges do not stick and thought to be a means of point-scoring for officers and prosecutors) or against sites considered inconvenient.
In response to all this, Anonymous has reared its ugly head, issuing an “official” press release in which it throws down the gauntlet to the Japanese government, who are doubtless quaking in their various Tokyo mansions:
Greetings land of the rising sun, we are Anonymous.
In recent years the content industry, politicians, and governments throughout the world have dramatically increased their efforts to combat internet piracy and copyright infringement. Unfortunately in doing so they have often taken the wrong approach which has lead to draconian laws, infringements of basic rights, and severely stunting the growth of technological innovations.
Japan, home to some of the greatest technological innovations throughout history has now decided to go down the path as well and cave into the pressures of the content industry to combat piracy and copyright infringement. Earlier this week Japan approved an amendment to its copyright law which will give authorities the right to imprison citizens for up to two years simply for downloading copyrighted material
We at Anonymous believe strongly that this will result in scores of unnecessary prison sentences to numerous innocent citizens while doing little to solve the underlying problem of legitimate copyright infringement.
If this situation alone wasn’t horrible enough already, the content industry is now pushing ISPs in Japan to implement surveillance technology that will spy on and every single internet user in Japan. This would be an unprecedented approach and severely reduce the amount of privacy law abiding citizens should have in a free society.
To the government of Japan and the Recording Industry Association of Japan, you can now expect us the same way we have come to expect you in violating our basic rights to privacy and to an open internet.
We Are Anonymous
We Are Legion
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
Expect Us
They have apparently wasted no time in making their presence felt – the websites of the Supreme Court of Japan, the Democratic Party of Japan and the Cabinet Office have all reportedly suffered DDoS attacks.
Source: Sankaku Complex.
The “Personal Illegal Downloads Punishment Act,” was recently proposed by the opposition LDP and their cultist stooges the Koumeito, and sailed through the Diet with no debate or opposition – 221 for, versus 12 against, with only the fringe left-wing maniacs of the Communists and Social Democrats, and a single Democrat, voting against.
As might be expected, the music industry’s belief that it will miraculously boost its declining sales was the most vocally espoused argument in favour of the law.
The most significant provision of the law is to punish offences of unauthorised downloads of copyrighted commercial audiovisual content with a maximum of 2 years in jail and ¥2,000,000 in fines.
The law also bans all ripping where it involves circumventing a protection system – which, in the best tradition of poorly conceived laws, apparently manages to leave ripping audio CDs legal as there is no protection system involved, whilst banning all format shifting of DVDs and BDs.
The download portion of the law comes into effect in October, whilst the ripping ban is due in January.
Some summary points about the “illegal download” law as it is currently understood:
Downloading copyrighted material was already technically illegal since 2010, but no penalties were attached
The law only applies to commercially (paid-for) distributed copyrighted audiovisual recordings
As a result the law actually leaves games, software, manga and text out – all these are still “legal” to download illegally
There are mixed opinions as to whether “downloading” includes caching or streaming – it has been pointed out that it may well ban YouTube if it does, and the final decision probably rests with police and how much they want to arrest a given person
It is a “shinkokuzai” law – for police to act, there has to be a complaint from a victim
This means police need a specific complaint to act upon – it seems unlikely copyright holders will be able to obtain this kind of information themselves in the case of private downloads, although public downloads are another matter
However, police have shown themselves willing to independently goad copyright holders into pressing charges by providing them with information from unrelated cases
As it potentially criminalises most of the computer-using population of Japan, there is some suspicion that police intend to use their new powers either to bring additional charges against people whose computers they have seized as a matter of course, or to initiate house searches in the hopes of finding additional offences with which to charge victims.
If Japanese police follow their typical pattern of behaviour (as they have done with uploaders), they will likely not crack down hard on all downloaders and infringing sites, but instead make occasional examples of offenders, or use the law to bring extra charges against people arrested for other reasons (handy if the original charges do not stick and thought to be a means of point-scoring for officers and prosecutors) or against sites considered inconvenient.
In response to all this, Anonymous has reared its ugly head, issuing an “official” press release in which it throws down the gauntlet to the Japanese government, who are doubtless quaking in their various Tokyo mansions:
Greetings land of the rising sun, we are Anonymous.
In recent years the content industry, politicians, and governments throughout the world have dramatically increased their efforts to combat internet piracy and copyright infringement. Unfortunately in doing so they have often taken the wrong approach which has lead to draconian laws, infringements of basic rights, and severely stunting the growth of technological innovations.
Japan, home to some of the greatest technological innovations throughout history has now decided to go down the path as well and cave into the pressures of the content industry to combat piracy and copyright infringement. Earlier this week Japan approved an amendment to its copyright law which will give authorities the right to imprison citizens for up to two years simply for downloading copyrighted material
We at Anonymous believe strongly that this will result in scores of unnecessary prison sentences to numerous innocent citizens while doing little to solve the underlying problem of legitimate copyright infringement.
If this situation alone wasn’t horrible enough already, the content industry is now pushing ISPs in Japan to implement surveillance technology that will spy on and every single internet user in Japan. This would be an unprecedented approach and severely reduce the amount of privacy law abiding citizens should have in a free society.
To the government of Japan and the Recording Industry Association of Japan, you can now expect us the same way we have come to expect you in violating our basic rights to privacy and to an open internet.
We Are Anonymous
We Are Legion
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
Expect Us
They have apparently wasted no time in making their presence felt – the websites of the Supreme Court of Japan, the Democratic Party of Japan and the Cabinet Office have all reportedly suffered DDoS attacks.
Source: Sankaku Complex.
Wednesday 20 June 2012
Miku Fan Outrage: “Sega Are Trying To Rape Miku!”
Hatsune Miku fans have been outraged by the news Sega is plotting to sully their beloved virtual diva by using her on their pachinko slot machines.
From an exchange reported at the recent Sega Sammy general meeting of stockholders:
“Are you thinking of making a pachislot machine with Hatsune Miku?”
“We’d really love to do a Hatsune Miku pachislot machine. We could expect lots of her fans if we did.
But the rights-holders are a very conservative company, they say they want to take care of her, and give them a break from using her in pachinko for now.
We think if we give them some more time and coaxing, in the near future they’ll let us use her in pachinko and pachislot machines.”
For those not familiar with the details of Sega’s corporate structure, Sega was fully acquired by Sammy, a Japanese maker of pachinko machines, in 2004 after a long-period of post-Dreamcast losses, and Sammy installed its own CEO in the company and vowed only to focus on cashcows (by which it did not mean video game production) from there on.
Sega has since started generating fat profits, although its lack of interest in traditional gaming soon caused its reputation to suffer – not least thanks to its shady pachinko industry parent company.
Pachinko parlours, though ubiquitous in Japan, are only quasi-legal and are almost universally regarded as a pastime only slightly less loathsome than attending AKB48 handshaking events or collecting dolls.
Despite the vocal contempt for pachinko voiced by otaku online, curiously the pachinko industry has persistently licensed high-profile anime characters for its pachislot machines – Evangelion being the most notable example – as well as spun off a large number of its characters into their own anime series.
However, the prospect of Miku being sullied by contact with this base industry, and by no less than Sega, has outraged her fans:
“She’s being made into Sega’s plaything…”
“They are just desperate to consume and destroy her.”
“Her popularity should start to wane soon, then they’ll get their chance.”
“Be honest, Sega. You just want to suck her sweet fluids dry!”
“There’s no way they’ll let her be used for gambling.”
“Pachislot machine Miku – the lowest of the low…”
“Do they really think new customers would come because of her?”
“I get the impression pachinko and Vocaloids are the same demographic though…”
“Get lost, Sega! She’s not your character, quit trying to screw her!”
“This is more Sammy than Sega, I think.”
“Sega is a pachinko company now though. It’s to be expected.”
“I’ll never forgive Sega if they do this. They’ll destroy Hatsune Miku culture!”
“We need to get Nintendo to take care of her.”
“And get a Kinect dance game for her too.”
“All these guys want is to exploit other people’s characters for their filthy pachi-profits.”
“Great, do it! This’ll be the end of Miku!”
“If all this is true then words cannot express my loathing for Sega right now. I’ll not buy another one of their Miku games.”
“Crypton seem to be quite strict with Miku though. Pachinko might mean profits in the short-term, but in the long term her image
might suffer. And the association with gambling is the worst possible one.”
“I just brushed off Sega’s idiocy as it just being Sega after all, but this…”
“Sega think they are the ones behind her popularity.”
“Crypton have Sega over a barrel though, they can pull the rights to Miku from Sega completely if they rub them up the wrong way.”
“Anime and pachislot are contents graveyards. Although occasionally one rises as a zombie.”
“Try this with Sonic or Yakuza instead, Sony! Use your own IP!”
“They already did…”
“They even did Sakura Taisen…”
“Sega: ‘We want to rape Miku to her core, but her parents won’t let us, it’s quite troubling!’”
“Sega: ‘You could make heaps selling your body… we don’t get why you’d refuse?’”
“They are probably desperate to do this after seeing how much Aimasu otaku shelled out on Mobamasu.”
“I choose to believe Crypton will never allow this!”
“Just how far have Sega fallen…”
Source: Sankaku Complex.
From an exchange reported at the recent Sega Sammy general meeting of stockholders:
“Are you thinking of making a pachislot machine with Hatsune Miku?”
“We’d really love to do a Hatsune Miku pachislot machine. We could expect lots of her fans if we did.
But the rights-holders are a very conservative company, they say they want to take care of her, and give them a break from using her in pachinko for now.
We think if we give them some more time and coaxing, in the near future they’ll let us use her in pachinko and pachislot machines.”
For those not familiar with the details of Sega’s corporate structure, Sega was fully acquired by Sammy, a Japanese maker of pachinko machines, in 2004 after a long-period of post-Dreamcast losses, and Sammy installed its own CEO in the company and vowed only to focus on cashcows (by which it did not mean video game production) from there on.
Sega has since started generating fat profits, although its lack of interest in traditional gaming soon caused its reputation to suffer – not least thanks to its shady pachinko industry parent company.
Pachinko parlours, though ubiquitous in Japan, are only quasi-legal and are almost universally regarded as a pastime only slightly less loathsome than attending AKB48 handshaking events or collecting dolls.
Despite the vocal contempt for pachinko voiced by otaku online, curiously the pachinko industry has persistently licensed high-profile anime characters for its pachislot machines – Evangelion being the most notable example – as well as spun off a large number of its characters into their own anime series.
However, the prospect of Miku being sullied by contact with this base industry, and by no less than Sega, has outraged her fans:
“She’s being made into Sega’s plaything…”
“They are just desperate to consume and destroy her.”
“Her popularity should start to wane soon, then they’ll get their chance.”
“Be honest, Sega. You just want to suck her sweet fluids dry!”
“There’s no way they’ll let her be used for gambling.”
“Pachislot machine Miku – the lowest of the low…”
“Do they really think new customers would come because of her?”
“I get the impression pachinko and Vocaloids are the same demographic though…”
“Get lost, Sega! She’s not your character, quit trying to screw her!”
“This is more Sammy than Sega, I think.”
“Sega is a pachinko company now though. It’s to be expected.”
“I’ll never forgive Sega if they do this. They’ll destroy Hatsune Miku culture!”
“We need to get Nintendo to take care of her.”
“And get a Kinect dance game for her too.”
“All these guys want is to exploit other people’s characters for their filthy pachi-profits.”
“Great, do it! This’ll be the end of Miku!”
“If all this is true then words cannot express my loathing for Sega right now. I’ll not buy another one of their Miku games.”
“Crypton seem to be quite strict with Miku though. Pachinko might mean profits in the short-term, but in the long term her image
might suffer. And the association with gambling is the worst possible one.”
“I just brushed off Sega’s idiocy as it just being Sega after all, but this…”
“Sega think they are the ones behind her popularity.”
“Crypton have Sega over a barrel though, they can pull the rights to Miku from Sega completely if they rub them up the wrong way.”
“Anime and pachislot are contents graveyards. Although occasionally one rises as a zombie.”
“Try this with Sonic or Yakuza instead, Sony! Use your own IP!”
“They already did…”
“They even did Sakura Taisen…”
“Sega: ‘We want to rape Miku to her core, but her parents won’t let us, it’s quite troubling!’”
“Sega: ‘You could make heaps selling your body… we don’t get why you’d refuse?’”
“They are probably desperate to do this after seeing how much Aimasu otaku shelled out on Mobamasu.”
“I choose to believe Crypton will never allow this!”
“Just how far have Sega fallen…”
Source: Sankaku Complex.
Medaka Box Anime's 2nd Season Green-Lit
Image source: ANN.
This year's 30th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump is confirming on Monday that a second season of the Medaka Box anime has been green-lit. NisiOisin and Akira Akatsuki's original manga series is also celebrating its third year with its third popularity poll.
The story follows Medaka (voiced by Aki Toyosaki), the strongest girl in Hakoniwa Academy and head of the school's student council. The student body can submit pleas for help into the suggestion box that Medaka installed. Together with council members Zenkichi (Yuuki Ono), Akune (Daisuke Namikawa), and Kikaijima (Ai Kayano), she takes on the challenges in the school that include supernatural powers and near-constant battles.
The first 12-episode anime season aired from April to June, and Crunchyroll streamed the season into several countries as it aired. Sentai Filmworks licensed the season in North America. - via Manga News.
Source: ANN.
Tuesday 19 June 2012
Would You Hire YuruYuri's Sugiura Ayano to be Your Lawyer?
Image source: Crunchyroll.
This is a story a lot like the discovery of the listing for an apartment named for Puella Magi Madoka Magica finishing move "Tiro Finale." The otaku community couldn't help but notice that (male) lawyer Ichiro Konishi of the Sakamoto Service Law Firm listed himself with a profile picture that looks suspiciously like YuruYuri student council vice-president Sugiura Ayano.
Mr Konishi specializes in financial law, particularly relating to debt, but also handles divorce, wills and inheritance, as well as real estate. - via Yaraon.
Source: Crunchyroll.
Summer 2012 Anime Season Chart (UPDATED)
The chart is here, and this is v4. Click here to see the changes, and also, download the chart.
Top 10 Most Disappointing Anime of 2012 So Far
Anime fans disappointed at having their expectations betrayed have listed the worst offenders of 2012 so far, although judging from the popularity of some of the titles on the list their original expectations must have been high indeed…
The ranking:
1. Natsuiro Kiseki
2. AKB0048
3. Nisemonogatari
4. Hyouka
5. Accel World
6. New Prince of Tennis
7. Fate/Zero Season 2
8. Aquarion Evol
9. Gundam Seed HD Remaster
10. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san
As usual, it has to be born in mind that for an anime to be considered disappointing somebody had to expect it to be good in the first place…
Source: Sankaku Complex.
The ranking:
1. Natsuiro Kiseki
2. AKB0048
3. Nisemonogatari
4. Hyouka
5. Accel World
6. New Prince of Tennis
7. Fate/Zero Season 2
8. Aquarion Evol
9. Gundam Seed HD Remaster
10. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san
As usual, it has to be born in mind that for an anime to be considered disappointing somebody had to expect it to be good in the first place…
Source: Sankaku Complex.
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