Erotic computer game maker blocks foreign website visitors
June 24th, 2009 by James
Danny Choo reports that the website of Minori, a Japanese company that produces erotic computer games (“eroge”), has blocked foreign access to its website with the following message:
The decision is probably influenced in no small part by the fact that international outrage recently made the Japanese media discover the existence of certain pornographic games, leading Japanese software makers to ban the creation of rape games. There may also be a slight connection to the case of an American man being arrested and convicted of possessing child pornography because he owned seven sexually explicit Japanese comic books.
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Quick, someone find out what they’re hiding so we can deny them their freedom of speech and punish them with prudish hysteria for assaulting imaginary women and not harming real children! If it weren’t for their fictional fantasy games not being sold to minors through ubiquitous age-limit notices and labels, Japan wouldn’t have one of the lowest rape rates in the world! The horror!
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Wait.. someone was convicted of possessing child pornography for owning comics? Why the hell did he plead guilty? That’s absolutely insane.
I don’t want to defend the predilection some manga fans have for sexually explicit depictions of child-like humans and I must say that some of the doujin I’ve seen in Akiba have made me sick to my stomach, but I find that ruling to be disturbing.
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“Why the hell did he plead guilty?”
Because he was able to plead to 2 counts instead of go to trial for 5, facing a jury in Iowa (State Motto: We’re the Buckle on the Bible Belt). By pleading guilty he “only” got 15 years – I don’t even want to think what he was facing if found guilty on all 5. Plus 6 years supervised release after his prison term, and he’s a sex offender for life.
He should have stuck endlessly watching Jack Bauer torture and kill people, because in America while you may be a pedophile for looking at drawings of androgynous humanoids you will never be a murderer for watching people die on TV.
Gawd I am so glad I don’t live there anymore.
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He hasn’t been sentenced yet. That takes place Aug 18. 15 years is what the prosecution is asking for, but we don’t know what the sentence will be. I’m told this judge is a fair one by a lawyer friend who’s tried cases in his court, so hopefully his sentence will be far less.
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Deny other countries your rape games, will you, Minori? How would you like it if the U.S. blocked some of their mass-murder games from Japan? Not so clever when the atrocity boycott is on the other foot, eh?
I don’t know what is sillier, being arrested in the U.S. for owning cartoon books about underage sexuality or being arrested in Japan for briefly holding an unloaded rifle without written permission. Zero tolerance is a poor substitute for rational thought.
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Whatever, I hope Minori is pleased with their childish knee-jerk decision.
If someone really wants to find a erotic/rape game, then they’ll find an erotic/rape game, by torrent or another means.
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Not sure I’d call it “childish knee-jerk” – if you ran the company, would you want to take the risk of being sued in US courts by someone who got arrested for “possessing child pornography” he got from your site?
Or perhaps next time you went on vacation to Hawaii you find the cops waiting for you for peddling same? You want to face a couple of decades in prison because the Thought Police decided you were aiding and abetting people who might commit a real crime against a real person someday, maybe? I mean, we all know that anyone who views such pornography becomes desensitized and will thus commit crimes themselves. Unless you’re a cop, prosecutor or jury member, apparently, as they can watch the stuff and never face jail time…
I honestly can’t say I blame the people running Minori if this is what they were thinking.
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The message clearly states “to defend our culture” not “to defend ourselves from being arrested for 100% legal games” (at least in Japan).
US courts have almost zero legal jurisdiction in Japan, especially for crappy erotic video games. Minori has no risk whatsoever in terms of getting arrested. Name 3 J-companies successfully sued/prosecuted by the US over the last 2 years. How about 2 J-erotic video game makers? Having a hard time?
Therefore, “childish knee-jerk reaction” and 100% blame on Minori. Like I said, if someone wants an ero-game, they’ll find an ero-game, one way or another.
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Hold the hell on…someone got ARRESTED and CHARGED in America for posession of MANGA? I don’t care if it’s something sick and wrong like Mai’s Daily Life. That’s not acceptable, and there should be more outcry over something so blatantly unconstitutional.
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It would certainly seem to violate the principle of freedom of speech. As the great Ice T said once,
“Freedom of speech, that’s some ******-******* ****-****!”
“You say the wrong thing, they want an answer quick.”
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God Bless America! Land that I love!
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Wow, that announcement is in really goodly engrish. They went all out and hired the best to translate that page eh?
So Japan’s culture is all about rape and under age sex?
Interesting.
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no, it’s a part of it, don’t play the stupid guy
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The biggest part.
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The biggest part!
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Step 1. British human rights activist groups catches wind of run-of-the-mill Japanese porn game sold on Amazon. Game was never intended for international audiences but was sold on Amazon anyway so was available to anyone in the world.
Step 2. Activist group eyes pop out and screams “think of the children!” Claims playing games featuring rape will make you a rapist in real life.
Step 3. Amazon UK swiftly pulls game. Amazon Japan does nothing.
Step 4. Activist groups says the evil must be vanquished at the root, and continues screaming, only this time at Amazon Japan.
Step 5. Amazon Japan pulls game.
Step 6. Porn game manufacturers sees this, has a bad feeling, and quickly gets together in a industry meeting to make a set of guidelines for themselves. Better to make your own rules than to have worse ones imposed on you by somebody else.
Step 7. Minori sees Step 1 and thinks maybe the activists would leave the manufacturers alone if they just kept a lower profile and not feed the fire. Minori bans foreign IPs and puts up a crappy Engrish message.
Step 8. Step 6 was apparently in vain as Diet session today started discussing a renewed and ever more far-reaching thought-crime law “for the children”.
.
to be continued…?
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