Minori Changes Tune: “Foreign Users are Criminals”
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Jul 8, 2009 05:44 JST
- Tags: Censorship, Eroge, Gaikokujin, Internet, Minori, Politics, Sites
Barbarian excluding eroge maker Minori is seemingly not content with excluding non-Japanese visitors from its site in retaliation for being forced into extremes of censorship by its own puritanical ratings body; the risible message on their site claims to be “defending our culture”, but in comments to prying Japanese media their CEO provides another excuse entirely, claiming they are protecting foreigners from making criminals of themselves by visiting their site.
For some reason their email response to the enquiries of Japanese news site J-Cast was made publically accessible to all comers; it can be seen here whilst it lasts (a proxy will be required for those outside Japan), or cached here.
Their CEO’s comments on their reasoning run thusly:
“If one of our products or the site itself were viewed overseas it might be a crime, and the viewer might become a criminal in their country. Since that would be our fault, it would be most regrettable.
We also take other measures, such as checking the user is running a Japanese operating system, to ensure that only Japanese users can run our software.”
Quite a different response to that given to foreign visitors.
Of course, on just about every other website on the Internet, the burden is on the viewer to ensure the content they are viewing is legal in their locality, not the publisher.
They also go on to rubbish the sale of eroge to foreigners as being a tiny market where they would have to translate their games into every language under the sun, presumably having never thought of just translating into English like every other company in the international market for visual novels…
Putting aside the suspect nature of the excuses they offer, it seems the real reasoning behind their ban is a lack of interest in the international market coupled with a desire to show that they are taking care to restrict availability of their products overseas, so as to undermine the notion that they are provoking overseas groups into Japan bashing.
Unfortunately, their real opponents are in Japan, and are interested in pursuing a domestic ban, not one on the tiny export trade…
Fans of the visual novel are doubtless well advised to support progressive, internationally minded companies such as Nitroplus, whose recent efforts promise a wealth of quality titles.
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Methinks we gotta write something as a group, and petition both the buggers in the Koumeito and Minori, ...and Yuzusoft.
The apocalypse of eroge can't be what we want.
We don't want apocalypse but we NEED Armageddon, but wait, who's gonna play the bad guy's route???
I think this is a chance for other countries to update their Erotica. It should stop being limited to cheap, trashy romance novels that middle-aged, overweight spinsters read.
We need MANLY erotica in the form of visual novels in the west.
Benjamin Franklin and Marquis De Sade would agree. It is your duty, men of the West, to make superior Erotica.
Another company that seems to have taken the same approach as Minori is akatsukiworks
Seriously, they should STFU!!! Loli and those kind of stuff are part of Japanese Culture, and should keep on going!
in my countries, possession of porns, let it be 2d or 3d, loli or MILF, rape or not rape, or just plain nude, in any mediums: dvd, cd, soft copy in pc, books, pictures, you name it, will get you in jail!
this is the world of isxxmic country
wrong reply, ignore me
Minori doesn't even MAKE the type of games that are being banned. wtf are they being so anal about? >.> Making themselves sound like a buncha naive visual novel makers...oh wait.
Actually ef and Eden* could be banned.
minori, you broke my heart. You treated us foreign fans like trash. This is not right.
well.. since yesterday playing CS on lan is a crime in germany but the worst is in australia XD
they are just being tsundere
:3
To you good sir, I present a medal.
For this, this is the truth indeed ъ(`ー゜)
No problem. Get a Japanese version of Linux [Ubuntu, for example.] and run it through flash drive. Use a proxy from Firefox.
But, problems are just going to get worse... Only God knows what will happen next...
What is it with human nature to go way to over-board with reforms, with the band wagon jumping media, doogooders and ppl scared of reprisals been the main culprits. I remember a few years in the UK, the whole man-woman equalty thing went too far with with alot of sexist against men tv progs been made while woman sexist things were a big nono.
im not even a Vis novel fan but this pisses me off. i mean neko banned WTF?
Fuck..The government doesn't care about our way of gaming..And if they did nobody would dare to enforce it..
The final solution to this problem is for the US to drop two more nukes onto Japan.
Sucks to be you if you live in Nagasaki or Hiroshima!
But this is the first time. Not others where it can be visited as normal.
Man, Japan must be the most xenophobic country in the world. Every time I visit this site, it's just another story of a Japanese website blocking foreign access. And don't even get me started on those Uyoku pricks.
I have said it before and I will say it again, the reason why they are not doing well outside Japan is because their games are overpriced . Unless they are willing to change their strategy than it's unlikely they will receive much support outside Japan and hope they don't do anything stupid like "Japanese operating system".
JUST PLAY DOTA YOU FUCKING RETARDS!
DOTA, lolz...no nakid loli there getting raped, dude.
Oh, well...if it was up to me then ppl like that (the geeks who agrees with that action) should just get their ban...xenophobes deserve that if you ask me.
Why fight it yourself when you can get the geek in the world riled about it? Right, Japan? *shakes head*
Fuckers deserve their Agness up their asses
/me goes to annoy his friends in japan to take revenge, kekekekekekkee
As far as business is concerned, Minori is doing the right thing.
They're protecting their (potential) customers.
tl;dr: cry moar, biatches.
Nooooooo Eden*~!!!! >.<
Minori might have made ef, but they can go fuck themselves for all I care. If the foreign market is an issue, they're just losing money by blocking foreign customers from their site, and if it isn't, all they're doing is trying to kick up some worthless (and pointless) nationalistic sentiment. It sure as hell won't help them oppose any bans.
Minori makes nearly all of its money domestically.
I don't s'pose its nationalistic sentiment. But its true the Western groups are the asses that started this. In preventing its stuff to leak to the overseas, they are essentially stemming the feminazis' argument that Japan is poisoning the rest of the world.
Any tangible resistance put up by the companies will just be dismissed with aplomb by the moralfags. In an oriental society, producers' standing of adult material are compromised to begin with as they are expected to submissively stand down in any conflict....like prostitutes.
Then again, the eroge industry could have been too pro-active and prominent in recent year, prompting the crackdown.
Artefact I think you are being awefully harsh on the japanese firms judging from how you describe their actions.
I think it is only reasonable for them to block out the foreign net viewers to save their business.
Since problems came from overseas and as usual western's tendency to dominate other cultures caused alot of problems.
Given the political situation, japanese politician will not disagree with what the feminist are saying.
Also since most international fans torrent their products, it is no surprise they care little about overseas viewers
But the point is that it's not really going to help. And I don't think you can just assume that "most international fans torrent their products". Is there any evidence of that? All it shows is a blindness to the realities of the situation as well as cowardice, since these firms apparently aren't willing to object to or challenge the bans head-on.
This is it I've had enough of the feminazis.
http://www.equalitynow.org/english/index.html
A stand must be taken.
Protest.
The whole of Sancon and its forum should protest.
What they are doing cannot be good.
Th ban of eroge and eroanime will cause the dam of desire to break. And the libidinal vagaries of otakus worldwide who have drawn their strength from the loli boom will deluge the streets... increasing crime rates, societal mayhem and massive unemployment.
We need a joint petition.
Fact of the matter, foreign eroge market is nothing compared to domestic market.
It's not painful or even itchy at all for minori to cut off foreigners.
If you have a problem, perhaps you should show them otherwise. The $ way.
>support progressive
does not compute
any one trying to get the GOVERNMENT to ban/regulate anything is the one with the progressive agenda despite any claims to the contrary.
regulations are bad for everyone P.E.R.I.O.D.
wait till i rape your mother due to no regulation against raping.
This shit just gets funnier and funnier.
Indeed, it's quite amusing to see how far will it get, even better than watch Mr Bean. I wonder who will get the title King of Fool at the end.
Tisk tisk. Everyone knows countries run on the sick fantasies and raging hormones of the people. Its simple fact, but religious and shamed followers act like their better than that. Bullshit. Everyone wants to get off on whatever satisfies them. The entire reason for living is sex. Money, food, survival, all to get laid. Ignorance. No harm no foul, live and let die.
sounds like you are trying to start a cult..
you are correct sir.
Midnight: And I accidentally the entire comment.
x.o
Who me? Not that that would be hard but manipulations not my style, even though people make it so easy. I havent the patience.
Minori can go get fucked!
Their games suck anyway! Alcot is better than those guys!
Lol Alcot doesn't make any games with story anyway. Its just a fuckfest
Their games sucks?
I bet you don't played EF.
''''If one of our products or the site itself ????were viewed overseas???? !!!it might be a crime!!!, and the viewer ""might become a criminal in their country"". Since that would be our fault, it would be most regrettable.''''
-LOL! LOL! LOL! ROFL! XD XD XD
OK, minori you're going to my list of companies that... suck? nah, if it not for Miyako, I'll ditch them. I still support them. LOL!
what do you expect?some(but not all) foreigners are complaining that eroge will create lolicons that will hurt real children, thus making them "criminals". therefore, for "world peace", it is better not to let these infectious material leaks out and "corrupt" the minds of the pure foreigners and in the end, all the small children will be saved. btw, agnes chan is one of the foreigner.
I'm sorry, what was the story about? I seem to have gotten distracted by the headline image and started a torrent of whatever Ef - A Tale of Memories (Melodies?) is.
"Japanese operating system"
I think you mean American operating system translated to Japanese.
"Japanese-version" operating system if you wish to be precise.
Make sure its a Sony or a Tobisha Brand Computers because like the Irish told me if its Gateway Computer its a peice of shit!
The more you prohibit/withhold something, the more appealing it becomes. GG eroge companies. Since this foreign devil cant buy your products, im going to go back to downloading them for free on the interbutt. Way to shoot yourselves in the foot, AND bow down to feminazi trash. Cmon Japan, do yourselves a favor and ship butterface Agnes back to china. It sounds like she would LOVE it there, especially with their new net censors.
RAGE!
Dang,...well one silver lining is that Nitroplus is definitely going to send some of their games over to other foreign companies. Other companies can also do that too..., but...right now I have nothing else to say.
Seriously, what's going on? All of a sudden everyone thinks porn and games are evil.
Oh you know those crazy moral crusaders neighbor kids with there silly antics they never stop to amaze.
all of a sudden?
Honestly they need to think up a better excuse...
Least they stopped the scapegoating.
Yeah, something like "because our parents don't allow dirty foreigners to visit our house" or whatever.
Yes because playing games makes you a criminal in this day and age.
If their site has region specific advertisements... it completely makes sense to block out foreigners. Why have unwanted traffic + more server load fees when all of their revenue comes from Japan specific advertisement?
unfortunately...people do get arrested because of a few games nowadays.
Yes certainly, playing some games is considered a crime in certain countries
okie... which do they prefer drug users or people who play loli games?
loli, anime, DFC, etc is our drugs
im not sure if its just me or something but dosent this site haver just about everything perverted and japanies?? does that mean i should b afraid 2 logo onto sankakucomplex?
All idiocy aside though, whats stopping the everyday otaku from using some random argument like "God gave me eyes, and I'm using them within my rights to view what I want to view when I want to view it" I'm pretty sure it would be hard to stop an otaku staring at a loli humping a telephone pole IRL bar arrest of the loli for indecent exposure amirite?
raeping loli is fine too... as long you don't hurt them lol
"I’m pretty sure it would be hard to stop an otaku staring at a loli humping a telephone pole IRL bar arrest of the loli for indecent exposure amirite?"
No, the guy would probably be jailed
What do they mean by that? I'm really confused.
Is he saying that if some foreigner saw loli, he is afraid that Minori might be blamed for this supposed "criminal offense"?
murder and illegal drug US are totally ok in the US movies and games... but don't you dare have sex... genocide? sure no problem... but sex!? lolies!?
Saw loli on their site, of course.
raping loli is the worst, rape adult is fine...
well feminazis are making it a crime for you guys to be looking at jap stuff.
Oh puh-leeeease~
SHIT GUIZ, I WENT TO A JAPANSES WEBSITE OUTSIDE OF AUSTRALIAN/US LAW AND NAO I IS GOING TO GET DONEZ FOR TEH LOLIZ SAEV MEEEEEEEE - so am i doin it rite? or is this not quit the reaction minori wanted?
Go kill yourself
And there goes another post for Suzacu and another war between Japanese and Western otaku because of more sensationalist articles and misquotes by Sankaku Complex...
I just hope the Japanese people will be able to notice that we still love them, nevertheless.
I see! - just as Nostradamus predicted!
Suzacu and company already emailed me telling me they agreed with us, and they are welcome to post these and any others.
Explain how it is a misquote? There are misquotes in the J-Cast article (for a start it quotes "eroge sakoku" as being originated by us when we were just using the term 2ch invented), yet I do not see anyone complaining about those?
Playing Sim City in Nicaragua will result in an arrest and a trial by combat.
Mortal Kombat, I hope. :P
Technically, this is true.
Take Canada, for example. Willingly viewing a site known to contain a _depiction_ of a minor engaged in a sex act would be considered "accessing child pornography", is a felony, and punishable by up to five years in prison.
ya , but that is ment to stop pedapliles like mj from encureging them to rape lil kids
You play CoD?! You murderer! You murdered people! The only way to win is to murder!
Fail comment is fail.
apez, 'cuz of ppl like you stuff like this is happening.
I'm playing CoD and that makes me a potential criminal? Yeah, rite~...
Which is lame to every extent, but we've already seen our share of arrests because of frikin manga...
One of those laws that's massively broken on a daily basis. Anime has a pretty big following in Canada, and I'm pretty sure that reading a simple 'ecchi' manga could under some interpretations be considered illegal.
That said, even comic book stores sell the stuff. Hell, I the one down the street from my house has a fair selection of hentai titles, most of which have their token loli character.
All related convictions for viewing/owning/accessing 2D loli are coupled with either importation (trying to bring the shit into the country), or combined with actual CP offenses. In fact, I don't even know of a single case where someone was charged for having -just- 2D loli on their computer...
Not in Canada anyway.
ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!!!!
Fuck the U.K.
And the USA
LOL
and your mama
Time to wake up from the dead and bring another revolution! Eroge games for everyone!
ALL...HAIL...EMPRESS LOLI.
Shut up faggot.
samefag
whats wrom with britatania?? i think it would b awsom to have giant air battles and super mechs
This isn't 4chan..
Go away.
Damn those Elevens...
win
LOL. Well, they are getting pressure from Brittania. :P
damn you, twelves
It's the thirteens i really hate....those bastards!
Fail