Eroge publisher Minori, well known both for the ef series and its grotesque xenophobia, has earned itself additional notoriety for its ham-fisted attempt to take down a fan translation project by deleting the contents of their wiki and replacing it with a copyright infringement notice, and then engaging in an unseemly edit-war with site inhabitants.
The incident began with Minori “taking down” a fan translation wiki page for one of their games (Eden) by blanking the page, which was reverted as vandalism. Some hours after this they came back and overwrote the page with the following:
The copyright of all the files on this page belongs to Minori. As we never gave permission for its distribution we are deleting it all for you.
The lengthy exchange between the xenophobes at Minori and a bunch of obnoxious, self-righteous pirates is not worth reproducing here, but the incident was eventually “resolved” with threats of legal action by Minori and the relatively responsible translators agreeing to cease their translation project.
Minori itself denied receiving any request for permission from the translators, whilst the translation group supposedly asked, received no response and decided to go ahead anyway – just what actually transpired is not clear.
This incident coupled with Minori’s previous inflammatory treatment of international fans seems to indicate the company either possesses only the most embarrassingly rudimentary understanding of the workings of Internet PR, or else it is intentionally treating international fans with the contempt it thinks they deserve.
It is difficult to explain why they persist in blaming foreigners for censorship of their industry with any explanation except sheer prejudice – all the groups striving to impose bans on the industry have been Japanese religious maniacs using international criticism (which so far amounts to a few slow news days and a crazy band of feminist liars) as an excuse to pass the laws they seek.
Legally however, Minori is quite correct in asserting its rights – translated works generally remain under the copyright of their original authors, and distributing without permission them constitutes copyright violation, except where allowed by “fair use” or similar.
Additionally, it is quite clear the majority of fan translation projects facilitate piracy far in excess of any international sales they might generate, and so from this perspective it is easy to see why publishers are not infrequently sceptical of them – translators can hardly be ignorant of the fact that their patches are more often applied to torrented isos than they are to legitimately imported games.
Whatever the legal questions raised by the fracas, it certainly serves as an abject lesson in how not to handle the issue – in fact it is hard to imagine it being handled in a worse way.
Are you want to play hentai games.
Why don’t you make it in your own country.
Is it illegal?
So, you shouldn’t play any hentai games.
Not illegal?
Again, why don’t you make?
Because we don’t give a s♥♥t if we can or can not play?
We’ll play if there is and will not if there isn’t, dumbass.
What he said.
Agnes and co. have been bitching and moaning for a ban on anything otaku-related for a while and nothing’s happened. The Japanese media’s been going off on how anime and manga are ruining Japan since Miyazaki Tsutomu and nothing’s happened. But one stupid gaijin femi-nazi group complains and it ends up setting off a chain of events that lead up to this whole mess where now an actual law is about to be passed.
Sure, the foreigners aren’t the only ones to blame. But they’re a big part of it and if they’d stop sticking their noses in the freedom of expression in our country, things wouldn’t have gotten this far.
But it’s NOT ME.
I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE “FOREIGNERS”
fucking racist f♥♥k.
Their action may not be correct, but their reasons are sound no matter how you see it.
Who are the people who forces and pressure the ban on making r♥♥e games?
Who are the one reporting the Rapelay game and putting pressure of their government to ban l♥♥i etc?
You can speck and excuse all you want on no lost sales on pirating, but in the first place the people who created all these games, you mean they have no right who they want to see or access them?
Yes they do not want foreigners having to access and play their games. Especially the English speaking countries with all the s♥♥t they are giving. Why is it as of now it seems that they close their eyes on the CHINESE.
Call them xenophobia all you want. Who are the Idiots who vote for their countries government that’s giving them all the needless s♥♥t and yet have the nerve to call Minori on their own company policy. Full of ego?
You want to destroy them and yet you also want to pirate their product. When they dont want you to see their work, you call out on them. Why dont you just nuke them again? save all the trouble. As one of your politician said, two is not enough.
Anon 01:37
Is that the best you can point out? Like even If you are given the right to vote, will anything change?
No, Example If you are American, in the end it be the same 2 party. And all goes back to square 1. Just like how it was in the 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s 10s.
you think just because you can vote, everything will change and utopia will be here?
Anon 01:47
Sure pass the blame, the government the one to do it. If you feel so strongly not to be associated, why dont you speak up and do things that are useful.
Cos its not your problem? When all rights you feel the need to be involve in all the good stuff, when things go wrong, not me, so not my responsibility. Yeah like that work
Think again. When as of now, the CHINESE are off the radar? They pirate more of the eroge, they have much more fan translated stuff.
>Who are the people who forces and pressure the ban on making r♥♥e games?
Not me.
Why should I take responsibility for this?
It’s a republic.
Speaking of electing a government, how many actually registered and voted? More importantly, how many of these are even at the legal age to vote?
Hell, do YOU vote?
Let’s just hope the ef translation is not effected.. Or I’ll rage..
Minori just updated their (外国) foreign website. Anyone willing to provide a translation of it? It’s awesomely long.
I’m not an expert, but from what I read so far, seems like they decided it is safer for everyone if they just block the outer world out.(Sadly, I agree with their stand)
Thanx CNN. Thanx!
tl;dr
“Come to Japan or you aren’t allowed to play our games”