- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: May 9, 2009 03:23 JST
- Tags: Bizarre, Copyright, Food, Haruhi, Lucky Star, Marketing, Moe, Plagiarism, Russia


China’s pioneering lead in flagrant copying is under threat from Russia: here you see a none too well concealed copy of Lucky Star’s Kagami, newly discovered, and no less than Haruhi herself, now a legend, both hoping to sell some sweets.
Below, you can see more of rather disturbing “moe” designs in use::
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: May 8, 2009 01:13 JST
- Tags: Business, Controllers, Copyright, Marketing, Nintendo, Ports, PS3, Sony, Wii

Sony is said to be planning the release of a new controller which is all but a carbon copy of Nintendo’s Wiimote, and in fact goes even further by introducing enhanced motion tracking.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Anime, H, News
- Date: Apr 29, 2009 11:21 JST
- Tags: Copyright, Internet, Loli, Lolicon, Marketing, Moe, Otaku, Sukumizu, TV

An “image character”, or mascot, for promoting digital terrestrial broadcasting has infuriated the very broadcaster it was supposed to promote after it was first turned into a loli by eager fans, and then began to be illustrated in a sexually explicit manner.
The broadcaster is vowing to put a stop to the lolified mascot by suing the fan artists into oblivion for copyright infringement.
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Some cheeky but canny realtor has opted to market a number of properties using the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
If you ever fancied living in a property capable of setting Asuka’s mind at ease, or of reducing Shinji to a quivering mass at the prospect of living one minute from the station, these may be the ones for you…
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China has set in motion plans to force all foreign companies operating in China to share their source code with Chinese companies.
The governments of the US, Japan and Europe are objecting ferociously to what in China is likely to amount to state mandated piracy of their software secrets.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Apr 18, 2009 15:18 JST
- Tags: Copyright, Crime, Fraud, Gamania, Law, Lucent Heart, MMORPG, Money, Taiwan

MMORPG Lucent Heart’s operator Gamania has announced its intent to pursue unprecedentedly harsh measures against those who wilfully abused a recent item replication bug on its servers.
As well as terminating their accounts and those of their entire clan, Gamania vows to pursue criminal charges of fraud against the dupers, with guilty offenders possibly facing ten year prison sentences.
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Chinese companies are coming under fire for piracy on an impressive scale, after it emerges that their new flagship high-speed rail system, which they proudly claim “utilises 100% Chinese owned intellectual property”, is actually designed by German and French companies (Siemens and Alstom).
China is even apparently exporting trains made with the designs, despite it being licensed for use only in China.
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A Chinese film company has released its answer to Dreamworks’ animated feature, “Kung Fu Panda”. “Wong Fei Hong vs. Kung Fu Panda” is a Chinese-produced unofficial sequel (to put it politely).
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Attempts to sell the popular Nintendo DS hack devices, known as “majikon” and usually used to allow illegal copies to be run on the console, have recently soared on Yahoo Auctions Japan, but with a new twist; rather than selling the device, sellers are now selling “a right to buy the device”, which they appear to be unfailingly converting into an actual device.
This is a surely a direct result of the recent ban Nintendo established on the device.
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With the recent court decision to quash the sale of DS hack devices, or “majikon”, Nintendo has been celebrating a “victory over piracy”, but voices are not unanimous in supporting the move, with some even suggesting it may hurt Nintendo more than it helps them.
Nintendo themselves claim a 3 billion dollar loss to the piracy…
Quoth a report on the subject by ITmedia:
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A Tokyo district court has finally awarded Nintendo the ban on “Majikon” and similar devices, usually used to circumvent copy protection on games for the Nintendo DS.
The ban, long sought by Nintendo and a coalition of five game makers, bans import sales of the devices, and prevents the sale of such stock as is in the region. Major online auction sites now prohibit dealing in the tools.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Feb 19, 2009 15:16 JST
- Tags: Bizarre, Censorship, Copyright, Indonesia, Islam, Marketing, Naruto, Parody, Politics

Clone abusing ninja Naruto has been spotted lending his support to Indonesia’s Prosperous Justice Party, or Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, an Islamist party supporting such backwards medievalist policies as bans on pornography, in what we can only consider as an episode which could damage his chances of becoming Hokage.
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