Bill 156. What does it mean?

Someone asked what does the bill mean. This is what I understand so far.

Well for starters, DPJ has agreed to support the bill that specifically aimed to tackle the perceived otaku social issues. Why DPJ counts? Because they still have clout in political Japan and if they willing to support any Bill, it most probably will pass the voting. The formal process to stamp the Bill to be in effect is on Wednesday. The one who proposed this Bill is Tokyo Metropolitan Government which led by notorious right winger Governor Ishihara.

Stuffs like underage characters in explicit situations, yaoi or yuri stories or anything that is seemed to impede desirable youth development in Japan by suggestive content that glorifies anti social stuff. Problem is the Bill is very subjective and almost everything under the sun can be censored or banned. It is so easy to abuse this interpretation: "unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate" certain sexual or pseudo sexual acts". The word "pseudo" is giving me heebie jeebies. What does it qualify as "pseudo" then? (slaps head in confusion)

This one too: “rape and other sexual acts which violate societal norms”. Fine, rape is bad. But "other sexual acts?" Another big hole here.

What is more intriguing that this law is very specific on anime, manga and games. Why they do not examine films, tv series or novels especially those from "pinku genre"? Some otakus are enraged by this very specific targeting by lawmakers.

What does it mean for anime fans around the world?

Well beginning next year June or even earlier, no more panty shots, no more hot springs scene, no more beach scenes, no more stumbling into female changing clothes scene, no more males or females engage in intimate behaviour and possibly most interesting is no more school life scenes. There is even reports of publishers already banning depictions of school uniform in light of the Bill. Pretty extreme.

The famous Japanese school girl phenomenon will probably die with the wider adoption of this Bill.

Some titles like popular Love-Ru or School Days might be banned, needless to say stuffs like Sekirei or Rosario might in danger of being cancelled too. Seinen stuff like Index or ToraDora! might not survive this Bill too. Even mega popular stories like Evangelion or Fate/Stay Night could be in hot soup too.

Maybe games like Love Plus or those countless eroge VN will be in trouble since they emphasize a lot on romantic encounter with school girls.

Another scenario is there will be less anime or manga output since most of them will be branded adult which means higher cost of production since market is smaller for them. Less anime content in Japan, even lesser for rest of the world. Less anime means less stuff for subbers to translate too. So every anime fans around the world, legit or not, will suffer from this law.

No more glorious years of 2002-2006. Or even worse, anime stories will be more stale since it is gonna be so kosher/clean.

Am I too pessimistic?

I don't know but looking at the wordings of the Bill 156 certainly very open to interpretation. The word "pseudo" is very worrying and too convenient for anyone to ban any works without much examination. Not helping when anime/manga industry in Japan is declining and now have to face this bizzare law that further squeeze their market from usual demographic.

I will be hard pressed to see how any mangaka or animators going to make a living with this law in force soon. Not surprising when 10 major manga publisher companies decided to withdraw support from Tokyo Anime Fair 2010 which is chaired by Ishihara.

Dark days indeed for anime and manga.

Source

anime

Law on fansubbing of anime and copyright issues

Of Otaku and Fansubs: A Critical Look at Anime Online in Light of Current Issues in Copyright Law

Jordan S. Hatcher
opencontentlawyer.com

Script-ed, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2005

Abstract:
The advent of digital technology and increased global connectivity has, to put it mildly, caused some ripples for the entertainment industry specifically and copyright law generally. In the aftermath, many are searching for new ways to incorporate the benefits of digital copies and the internet while minimizing the harms. To some, the anime industry and its fans offer examples of how an industry can benefit and even grow from allowing copyright infringement. This article examines the anime industry in-depth with this suggestion in mind and places the industry among current copyright policy debates, such as those suggested by Lawrence Lessig.

Downloadable Article

Quite up to date and erudite discussion from law's point of view on fansubbing, especially with Berne Convention definition of copyright. USA and Japan are signatories of the Treaty hence technically fansubbers were in direct violation of the said treaty.

However some people might argue the treaty was outdated and needs to be revised to reflect grey area between legitimacy and illegal in copyright issues posed by fansubbers potentially.

New battle against anime piracy, ODEX story continues

The battle against the illegal downloading of TV anime has taken a new turn.

A new animated series, Tears To Tiara, is to become the first in the world to be broadcast simultaneously in Japan and across the rest of Asia, including Singapore.

Local anime distributor Odex says the same-time broadcast is to help combat the problem of illegal downloads.

Tears To Tiara, which depicts the epic struggle against a powerful empire set in a fantasy mediaeval world, will premiere on April 6 on Animax (StarHub Channel 84) in its original Japanese soundtrack with English and Chinese subtitles.

The series is based on a popular role-playing game available on personal computer and Sony PlayStation 3 platforms, and therefore is something many anime pirates would be keen to get first dibs on.

Odex managing director Peter Go says of the simulcast: 'This is a breakthrough because this is the first time that the Japanese side has allowed this.'

He notes that episodes of anime such as Naruto and Bleach are uploaded onto the legal website www.crunchyroll.com an hour after broadcast 'but the resolution is lower and hence easier to transmit'.

Pirates download the shows as they do not want to fork out big bucks for the genuine DVDs of the shows, which can cost $100 or more for a season and are often available only several months after being broadcast.

ODEX Story and Source

Again, what ODEX don't grasp is their mode of business is outdated in hi tech Singapore and if they want to make proper profit from current generation of anime fans instead of suing them is using 3rd Wave concepts. Streaming and simulcast is something they should invest in instead of preparing lawyer letters to sue individual fans which in the end angered the community to the extent that most of them refuse to consider ODEX products anymore. Dramatic and headline grabbing at first but counterproductive in the end.

Not helping is their inferior quality in video and subbing with excessive pricing that turn off most potential buyers off. Most people if given an affordable monthly fee with simulcast (quality subtitles too) will pay for it, instead of going into a troublesome effort downloading the digital copies off the Net. This is why Crunchyroll has my high regard and I do believe strongly that they will weather the recession and emerge stronger than ever.

ODEX is gasping rather pathetically, IMHO.

The History of ODEX effort to combat downloaders in Singapore

Singaporean Anime Downloaders being sued

Nov 11, 2008
Anime downloaders being sued
By Chua Hian Hou
FIVE Japanese anime studios are suing people accused of downloading their videos without permission, marking an unprecedented step by a rights owner against end-users.

Four writs of summons were filed last week by law firm Rajah & Tann on behalf of the studios, namely Showgate, Geneon Entertainment, TV Tokyo, GDH KK and Sunrise.

The studios are behind anime series such as Devil May Cry and Bleach. The writs did not specify which series had been downloaded.

Source

Perhaps it is first step to stem the fansubbing scene? Interesting case to follow. It could be crucial for the fandom as lots of fans download digital copies of the Net for their anime fix.

Raw providers being arrested.

On May 9, the Kyoto Prefectural Police's High-Tech Crime Task Force arrested three individuals on suspicion of using the Share file-sharing software to distribute anime and other content on the Internet without the copyright holders' permission. The three suspects were company workers in their 20s to 40s from Kanagawa, Hiroshima, and other Japanese prefectures. Authorities searched the suspects' homes on the same day they were arrested.


More here

Source

It is noted that ANN has been leading a personal crusade against fansubbers in interest to protect the industry but as one of my friend pointed out, all their effort is going down the drain when GONZO subbed Aegis of Uruk Druaga on the day of its release.

Ironic bitter blow in roundabout way.

On the main issue, it does seem WINNY is fast becoming hazardous to transfer files.

Anti anime piracy trojan, a vigilante of sorts?

Copied in verbatim from the news, in case it got deleted.

"A Japanese man has admitted in court to writing a data-destroying Trojan horse.

Masato Nakatsuji, a 24 year-old who in January became the first ever virus writer to be arrested in Japan, admitted in Kyoto District Court that he created a Trojan and used popular copyrighted animation footage to spread it via the internet.

The malware was designed ultimately to wipe music and movie files from users' computers.

The malicious code, believed to be the Pirlames Trojan, was spread via the controversial Winny file-sharing system in Japan in 2007.

Nakatsuji made the admission during the first day of the trial, where he answered charges of copyright infringement and defaming an acquaintance by embedding his photograph into the malicious code.

"Al Capone was charged with tax evasion rather than racketeering, and Nakatsuji is being charged with copyright infringement rather than for creating malware," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

"If he is found guilty, the general public are unlikely to worry that it was his ill-advised choice of graphics which got him into legal trouble rather than virus writing.
"However, a clear message needs to be sent to the computer underground that they will not be shown a blind eye if they spread malicious code and damage innocent people's computers and data."

Prosecutors described how Nakatsuji is alleged to have created the Trojan horse, attached it to copyrighted animated pictures and planted links to it on internet message forums.

However, Nakatsuji's defence has argued that the malware was not seriously malignant, and that justice would not be served by punishing the graduate student for spreading the Trojan when there were no specific laws against doing so.

Isamu Kaneko, the author of the Winny file-sharing program, was fined by a Japanese court in December 2006 for assisting in copyright violation"


Original article

Be careful, or one day it will wipe clean your stuff!!!!!!!

Honey Room or Misshitsu

Japanese manga ruled obscene

A Tokyo court has ruled a Japanese cartoon book obscene, in a landmark court case that sparked debate on freedom of expression and the position of the country's ubiquitous 'manga' cartoons.

Monotori Kishi, a 54-year-old publisher, was handed a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, for violating Japan's penal code on the sale and distribution of obscene literature.

Presiding Judge Yujiro Nakatani said Misshitsu, or Honey Room, was too graphic.

"Bodies were drawn in a lifelike manner with little attention to concealment (of genitalia), making for sexually explicit expression and deeming the book pornographic matter," Mr Nakatani said.

About 45% of all books and periodicals sold in Japan are manga. They often contain sexual material.

"Given what's available it seems an extraordinary decision," said the BBC's Tokyo correspondent, Jonathan Head.

"There is so much pornography available in Japan in every form - in films, computer games, cartoons and famously manga and anime - those books of cartoons you can see men reading openly on the train everyday," he told the East Asia Today programme.

Old news but this what makes this particular publication most sought after stuff in BBS boards like 4 chan. I remembered the frenzied request for this work in the public imageboard. The art cover is pretty good but I personally never read the manga. It must be one heck of the work to force Tokyo act with such ruling, first time in 20 years it seems.

Which brings to me one question, why such selective censorship? I seen gazillions of explicit content material which have negligible censorship, but why this particular work?

The creator is very unlucky.

This article looks at both sides of manga culture and look into this particular title as discussions on dark side of manga.

Manga cafe operators face charges for letting schoolboy violate curfew

FUJISAWA, Kanagawa -- Operators of a manga cafe and two of its part-time employees face charges after they allowed a 14-year-old schoolboy to stay in the facility overnight in violation of a prefectural curfew, police said.

Police have sent documents to the Yokohama District Public Prosecutors Office accusing the operators of the Hot Time Fujisawa manga cafe and two of its part-time employees -- men aged 32 and 29 -- of violating a Kanagawa Prefectural Government ordinance aimed at providing youth with a wholesome upbringing.

Full link is here.

Hikkimori prevention measures? I wonder. Japan's hikkimori (social recluse) is growing phenomenon and worried Japanese sociologist. However it is not limited to Japan alone as growing Asian countries have this preplexing social problem.