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NEWS: Japanese Government Aims to Ban 'Leech Sites' That Link to Pirated Works




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Morry



Joined: 26 Jun 2016
Posts: 756
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:26 pm Reply with quote
Ah yes, because the government banning something, especially something on the internet, will no doubt make it go away.
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Escaflowne2001



Joined: 29 Jul 2006
Posts: 468
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:32 pm Reply with quote
They tried banning sites in the UK over the last 2-3 years. banned about 40 sites and it didn't do a damn thing. I think they've given up now.
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Rhys2753



Joined: 24 Apr 2013
Posts: 94
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:36 pm Reply with quote
I've bought more because I liked what I saw than I would have if I didn't see at all.
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XSp



Joined: 23 May 2014
Posts: 255
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:59 pm Reply with quote
I wonder how long it'll take for japanese government and the agency in question to realize how fruitless and counter intuitive spending time and money towards this really is.
Well, as long as they keep getting lobby money from big studios and whatnot, they probably won't stop, as it is on several other countries.

For every website they close down, tens will sprout to replace it, and they'll often come back in some form that prevents the previous law from closing it. It's a hydra.
Japanese ISPs are blocking it? Let's use VPNs or host it in some other country.
And then, there goes all the time, money, and potential controversial laws used and politicial manneuvers that had to be done for this.

This usually ends in the government and ISPs getting into some sort of conundrum where the only way to completely block these websites is by adopting measures very familiar to dictatorships - censorship, control, and nation wide firewalls. It's fruitless.

And this, in the end, is far more damaging to the industry. What you need to do is make your content easier to access, cheaper, more convenient than piracy sites and tools, and find a way to conquer, engage, and profit from people who are currently pirating your stuff.

And I see they keep posting the bullshit numbers of "money lost due to piracy" which is something that at this point everyone knows how meaningless it is. No, you wouldn't sell all that if it wasn't for piracy. And more importantly, a whole ton of people might not have known about manga titles and whatnot if it wasn't for piracy.

I'm not a fan of people stealing the work of authors with zero returns which ultimately hurts the industry overall, but it's time countries like Japan and others realize that strategies like these just don't work. There are more effective ways to go around this, and the more time and money spent on Internet censoring and arrest it's just more time, money and goodwill that you will throw in a garbage can for nothing.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2460
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 7:35 pm Reply with quote
Making pirate content more difficult to access means that it'll be more convenient to go to the legal options where it's available - and Japan has plenty of this stuff legally I believe. Sure, people who don't care are going to get their stuff from free regardless, but there's definitely an impact when you make a huge aggregator disappear, make it go private, or stuff like that.
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WeepingOshino





PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:52 pm Reply with quote
Remember that time the EU tried to withhold information from a study stating that there is no statistical evidence to suggest that piracy harms profits but rather is a good thing? Anyone?
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Compelled to Reply



Joined: 14 Jan 2017
Posts: 358
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:58 pm Reply with quote
#815349 wrote:
I wonder how long it'll take for japanese government and the agency in question to realize how fruitless and counter intuitive spending time and money towards this really is.
Well, as long as they keep getting lobby money from big studios and whatnot, they probably won't stop, as it is on several other countries.

Basically you answered your own question, never. I doubt anyone believes media piracy can be completely eradicated, but the idea is to make it more inconvenient. I would consider the bigger argument against it being the fact technology changes fast and governments can't keep up, so most measure are no longer applicable once passed.
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Firefly251



Joined: 14 Jul 2018
Posts: 355
PostPosted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:47 pm Reply with quote
wouldnt have to pirate if half of the stuff would actually get translated Neutral


I have no issue buying it, but it isnt even sold here Sad
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xzy123



Joined: 07 Sep 2015
Posts: 143
PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:54 am Reply with quote
Compelled to Reply wrote:
#815349 wrote:
I wonder how long it'll take for japanese government and the agency in question to realize how fruitless and counter intuitive spending time and money towards this really is.
Well, as long as they keep getting lobby money from big studios and whatnot, they probably won't stop, as it is on several other countries.

Basically you answered your own question, never. I doubt anyone believes media piracy can be completely eradicated, but the idea is to make it more inconvenient. I would consider the bigger argument against it being the fact technology changes fast and governments can't keep up, so most measure are no longer applicable once passed.


The governments have to keep doing it because it is a act to keep a face in front of the people Who trusted them. They don't care if it work not.
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AJ (LordNikon)



Joined: 14 Apr 2009
Posts: 504
Location: Kyoto
PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 9:23 am Reply with quote
I remember the exact same declaration three years ago. Depending on your view, foreign hosting and linking site removal is going o depend a lot on said host nation's apathy level.

killjoy_the wrote:
Making pirate content more difficult to access means that it'll be more convenient to go to the legal options where it's available - and Japan has plenty of this stuff legally I believe. Sure, people who don't care are going to get their stuff from free regardless, but there's definitely an impact when you make a huge aggregator disappear, make it go private, or stuff like that.


Been hearing that for the better part of the past 15 years. I remember back when CR was nothing but a pirate locker site, and people said that. IDK, maybe in the future, sites like Kissu or whatnot go legit when they make more money from it. Who knows?
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Asterisk-CGY



Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 398
PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 1:41 pm Reply with quote
I guess if the money they're spending to convince the government to do this is returning on more sales over overhauling their business practices to attract buyers then I guess it was worth it.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:44 pm Reply with quote
Escaflowne2001 wrote:
They tried banning sites in the UK over the last 2-3 years. banned about 40 sites and it didn't do a damn thing. I think they've given up now.

And they're supposedly about to ban a lot more of it, the effectiveness of which I predict to be no greater than the ghoulish lot's usual floundering.
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Hinotoumei



Joined: 12 Jun 2016
Posts: 100
PostPosted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 6:38 am Reply with quote
lost profits? people who are downloading shows etc usually do so because they cannot afford to buy the things in the first place. If someone cannot afford to buy something, they will never give you money. You therefore did not lose money from them. In fact, by them downloading and watching your show and telling others about it, your obscure show no one has otherwise ever heard of outside of japan, all of the sudden becomes popular..

let's not forget how the bootleg subtitle market made a lot of anime popular. Boot leg uncensored subs of dragonball are the reason the franchise is still alive to this day outside of japan. boot leg subs of naruto and bleach basically started the current anime craze. boot leg subs of one piece basically kept the franchise alive in north america for almost a decade before official and acceptable translation even came out.

but no one ever acknowledges that do they? No. they out right refuse, claiming they are losing profits because people are downloading things for free off the internet.

A more modern example of this would be kamen rider and gaaro.
Boot leg subs of gaaro kept the franchise in american/canadian hands. Until finally the anime came out and saw a worldwide simulcast release. now gaaro is liscensed and making money from a market that otherwise would not have existed without bittorent and fansubbers.

It's time for these companies to grow up. If you don't want people bootlegging your product then you need to take the risk to expose your product to a market yourself. the real victims here are the fansubbers who did all your market research for you for decades and never got a dime when you swooped in and stole the market they created.
they saved you billions of dollars in risque market testing, while you now stuff sub par subs and awful dubs down the throats of a community they created..

and complain you are losing profits.
make a superior product, do the research/exposure work yourself and stfu.
you can't make a profit off people who wouldn't buy your product in the first place.
if you want to make money, make a product people will buy;

if you stopped release 4kids trash dubs of great anime etc etc than the fansubbers and "pirates" would have no need to fill in the gaps from your pathetic mistakes now would they.

come down to earth hollywood.
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S0crates



Joined: 06 Jul 2018
Posts: 227
Location: Banned - Noticed our poor ethics
PostPosted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 12:57 pm Reply with quote
When I was younger "pirating" (not that it was optional back then, mind you) was but a gateway into buying real things.

These days I buy almost all I consume. Streaming and Digital Downloads are where it's at. Only thing I don't buy is probably music as I basically only listen to OST which is impossible to buy online. Instead of buying the CD I buy something else of the same franchise to "compensate". If anything I think this will drop the merchandise sales as people would just move on to something else. Studios should also get a donate page linked in the end credits or something. If I as a consumer could also get more information as for "what the best way to support the franchise/creators" would be, then that would help on the motivation to contribute as well. From what I understand it is DVDs currently the best option (which is actually really bad for me, as I have to pay 50% taxes, which is 50% not going to the creator), though I do put into figurines and "stuff" on the merchandise side of things ("toys" are currently tax free here), which I hear is the "second best" option.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5349
PostPosted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 3:32 pm Reply with quote
#815349 wrote:
And this, in the end, is far more damaging to the industry. What you need to do is make your content easier to access, cheaper, more convenient than piracy sites and tools, and find a way to conquer, engage, and profit from people who are currently pirating your stuff.
You can watch a whole ton of Anime on streaming sites for cheap, and while they may not be perfect they have advantages like multiple platform apps, appearing before pirate sites and are very convenient.

I feel that a lot of people who still pirate for shows that are available this way, which is most shows, simply do not want to pay and will never pay.
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