

CNN have been reporting that the “New South China Mall,” supposedly the or one of the world’s largest shopping malls, is now almost totally deserted.
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The creator of the manga adapted into blockbuster bathing movie Thermae Romae has spoken of her outrage at learning that of the movie’s 6 billion yen gross she would only be receiving a paltry 1 million yen.
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Sony has officially confirmed that the PlayStation 4 will be able to play second-hand games after all, after a patent on a method of blocking them and the much enhanced online delivery system of the new console led to much speculation that it would finally axe the used game market with a registration system.
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The recent “LV0” PS3 key leak rapidly led to the PS3 being cracked and a literal “free-for-all” return of full scale piracy to the platform – a situation Sony has chosen to tackle by threatening evil custom firmware users with a ban if they do not delete the wicked software from their consoles.
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China quality Pikachu, Naruto, and Avatar statues gracing a Wenzhou anime event have lately been attracting attention – though more for the potential trauma they will likely inflict on the event’s little visitors than their artistic quality…
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PS3 piracy fans are rejoicing at the news that the “LV0” PS3 encryption keys have been leaked, allowing the console to be fully and irreversibly hacked for good.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Japan, News
- Date: Oct 1, 2012 23:33 JST
- Tags: Copyright, Crime, Internet, Law, Marketing, Music, Otaku, Police, TV

Japan’s law banning unauthorised downloads or ripping of copyrighted material came into effect on the 1st of October, with a maximum prison sentence of 2 years awaiting the vast majority of Japan’s Internet users if they are unfortunate enough to be caught downloading music and videos.
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Police have announced charges of criminal copyright infringement against the admin and players of an unauthorised Aion: The Tower of Eternity server, marking Japan’s first ever prosecution of an emulated MMORPG server.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Japan, News
- Date: Aug 4, 2012 04:31 JST
- Tags: Bizarre, Copyright, Events, Food, London, Marketing, Mass Media, Sushi, UK

Japanese are aghast to learn that the 2012 Olympics has banned sushi sellers from providing soy sauce as there are no makers sponsoring the event, making the dish practically inedible to Japanese and further drawing attention to the increasingly farcical nature of the event.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Japan, News
- Date: Jun 27, 2012 19:10 JST
- Tags: 4chan, Copyright, Crime, Hacking, Ibaraki, Internet, Law, Moe, Politics

The campaign of Anonymous to free Japan from the bondage of unduly harsh copyright law has got off to a less than auspicious start after the group bumblingly hacked the wrong site, thinking it was humiliating the central government by defacing their site only to find it had instead ruined the site of a river works office in Ibaraki.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Japan, News
- Date: Jun 27, 2012 00:53 JST
- Tags: 4chan, Copyright, Crime, DPJ, Hacking, Internet, Law, LDP, Music, P2P, Politics

Hacker collective Anonymous has declared open season on the Japanese government for its passage of a draconian ban on illegal downloads and ripping, briefly taking down several government websites in a series of cyber-attacks.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Jun 24, 2012 20:14 JST
- Tags: AKB48, Comparison, Copyright, Idol, K-ON!, Music, Osaka, Otaku, Parody, Plagiarism


K-ON! fans are fuming at AKB48 sister group NMB48’s apparent cribbing of their beloved anime’s very logo, alleging plagiarism of the most egregious sort.
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