June 11, 2009: Japan is hopping smartly to it on behalf of Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US).
Five teenagers, all site admins on the One Touch BB, "were brought in for questioning by the police last week, including one 13-year old who was given juvenile probation," says Billboard.
They'd already been warned to, "stop using copyright-protected material," says the story.
In recent months, two adults have been arrested for uploading songs to the site.
Following complaints by the Big 4's JASRAC rights' society, "police issued warnings to Aichi Information System, the operators of the BBS, and hauled in the five teenagers from the city of Fukuoka," says the story, adding:
"JASRAC has previously filed complaints about the same site and the police have taken action against two people in the last two months. In April a male university student was fined 600,000 yen ($6,120), and in May a 54-year-old male doctor was fined 500,000 yen ($5,100)."
In Tokyo's Odaiba Shiokaze Park, stands the 59-foot-tall giant mecha but isn't for public unveiling until July 11th, 2009.
The MBS was built to commemorate the "Mobile Suit Gundam 30th Anniversary Project" on April 7th, 2009 as first anime series about Mobile Suits, Mobile Suit Gundam. It will stay up until the end August 31st and viewing will be free.
What you'll get is a moveable head, 50 points on the Gundam are lit, and mist that shoots out of 14 different points on the statue. Videos below.
Emboldened by their success in turning over the craven eroge industry, Japan’s own spineless politicians are once again obediently heeding international demands for a complete ban on artistic depictions of minors engaged in sexual activity.
The latest assault on the artistic freedoms guaranteed by the Japanese Constitution comes from the Komeito (”Clean Government Party”), which exclusively represents the interests of a Buddhist cult, the Sokka Gakkai, and consequently is a great fan of censorship and attempting to legislate public morality. UNICEF Japan honcho Agnes Chan herself is a member of the cult.
Responding to the usual outrageous international claims that Japan is causing child abuse and encouraging lolicon in other countries with its liberal laws on pornography, the Komeito obediently proclaimed that Japan should obey these demands:
“Being called ‘a child porn power’ is shameful and we must act to rectify this by an immediate revision of the law. The Diet must immediately consider such a revision.”
Domestic politicians often like to claim Japan “is out of step” or “lagging” compared to other countries when they wish to push through a policy, and in this case they have also been claiming it is “a national disgrace” to be defamed by feminists and their ilk.
They go on to make a lengthy screed against the evils of child pornography, as usual failing to register the fact that Japan is vastly more safe for children than any of the nations so concerned with banning the material.
Then they reveal the latest direction in their thought:
“Further, last month we conducted an investigation at Akihabara, looking at those games and similar depicting sexual violence which fall outside the scope of current laws, and how their sale... [Read More]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 WWW.USDOJ.GOV
Iowa Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing Obscene Visual Representations of the Sexual Abuse of Children
Christopher Handley, 39, of Glenwood, Iowa, pleaded guilty today in Des Moines, Iowa, to possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.
According to court documents, in May 2006, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intercepted a mail package coming into the United States from Japan that was addressed to Handley. Inside the package was obscene material, including books containing visual representations of the sexual abuse of children, specifically Japanese manga drawings of minor females being sexually abused by adult males and animals. Pursuant to a search warrant, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) searched and seized additional obscene drawings of the sexual abuse of children at Handley’s residence in Glenwood. Handley was indicted by a grand jury sitting in the Southern District of Iowa in May 2007.
Pursuant to his plea agreement, Handley today pleaded guilty to one count of possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1466A(b)(1), which prohibits the possession of any type of visual depiction, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, that depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct that is obscene.
Saya, the female humanoid robot, taught a science and technology lesson to a class of 10-year-old pupils at Kudan Elementary School in Tokyo.
With her neat brown hair, pink lipstick and skirt suit, the robot, created by scientists at Tokyo University of Science, has been designed to resemble as human a form as possible.
Using a range of programmed movements from eyebrow arching to smiling, her face is capable of expressing six basic emotions in the classroom – surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness.
While Saya's creator Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi said the robot's main purpose was to highlight the joys of technology to children, he also said it would benefit schools suffering from a shortage of human teachers.
"In the countryside and in some small schools, there are children who do not have the opportunity to come into contact with new technology and also there are few teachers out there that can teach these lessons," said Professor Kobayashi.
"So we hope to be able to develop this robot so it can be remotely controlled to teach these classes."
Saya was initially created to work as a receptionist in Japanese companies five years ago but was recently reprogrammed by scientists into its latest incarnation as a schoolteacher.
Akiba Online
