This news might have meant something 10 years ago. It simply marginalizes the way people transfer material and creates a larger, more dependant community for filesharing. Its like forcing a den of wolves into one cave.

I still hate the world of piracy but this idea is fucking laughable.

Even if English is the international language, that doesn't mean that everyone speaks it, or is fluent enough to use it on a daily basis. I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who has talked to Japanese who have never lived abroad DO NOT speak English. Most of them can read a bit, but they can't understand what you're saying, nor can they give you a clear response. I was at a conference where the Japanese ambassadors to Belgium and France spoke, and they were just HORRIBLE. If highlevel government officials don't speak enough English, what the hell can you expect from your average Japanese guy or girl? Most Japanese are only interested in japanese dubbed foreign media, or in japanese media, and those are generally not found that easily using English file sharing networks, so why go through all the trouble of using a network in a foreign language, when you can just as easily find it in Japanese networks? It is not that they are deliberately isolating themselves from other networks because they consider them inferior, it's just that they generally don't seem to have a need for them.

Let me paint a picture for you: lately I've been playing the MMO Eve Online. I've been a member of the Something Awful alliance Goonswarm practically since I've started playing, and for about a year Goonswarm has formed a powerbloc lead by Goonswarm, Red Alliance, and Tau Ceti Confederation, the latter two being Russian and French alliances, respectively.

Very few French and Russian players speak English fluently, but we've still formed a stunted system of English words for basic communication. If somebody in any alliance needs something from somebody else the message is conveyed within context.

This happens all the time in international filesharing networks. People already know what they want, and can inform each other about how to get it fairly simply.

Of course, even with all of that aside, it's not like there aren't language packs for any of these programs.

Maybe me using French in one of my previous posts was a bad example, Japanese are a different case because they are simply awful at foreign languages, even someone from the Netherlands or France can speak better English than your average Japanese. How many Japanese players are there in your Western RPGs? For those who play MMORPGs like Phantasy Star or FFXI, how many Japanese players do you encounter on international servers? Just look at the number of Japanese members on any average forum compared to other foreigners, I can only think of ONE person on these forums, and she seems to have lived most, if not all of her life in the states. Japanese just like to stay in their own group, which from my experience seems to be largely because of the language barrier.

As I said in my previous post, Japanese hardly care for a lot of the stuff that we use file sharing networks for (movies, tv shows, music), unless they can somehow find it in their own language. How many dubbed movies can you find on your average torrent network, or in the various soulseek groups? The number is hardly worth going through all the trouble for, so why not use networks in your own language. I also use specialized sites when I want to download Dutch or French TV shows or movies, since they simply can't be found in their original version on so-called international networks.

Your Japanese apologetics are pathetic. Japanese consumers had the chance to enjoy Western video games when Microsoft attempted to market the Xbox to Japan. Where was the language barrier?

How hard do you think it is to translate between English and Russian? Granted, Russians tend to stay in their own communities out of ease, but when it comes to file sharing they have no qualms with using bittorent or other networks.

You can't wave away a culture which has encouraged myopia and isolationism for over a thousand years with a language barrier. A culture in which English instruction is mandatory.

And no, Japanezeshorty is American, ethnic Japanese. We have posters from all over the world, and almost none of them are Japanese.

Let's rephrase this in the context of an American site. If an American internet community denied membership to non-Americans, it would be appropriately ostracized and ridiculed. Yet 2chan is emulated.

Probably because they can't read latin alphabets. EBERITINGU MASUTO BUI WURITEN IN ZA KATAKANA.

I love Japan. Crazy tentacle rape? Fine! File sharing? Morally reprehensible!
http://www.newsarama.com/AniShorts/3...lKenSebben.jpg
HA HA HA! Priorities.

Look, this messageboard was founded by Americans with a heavy skew towards Japanese culture. We're not the norm. For the most part, people of different nationalities do tend to stay within their own groups. Have you been to Chinese forums? Indonesian forums? Swedish forums? The language barrier works both ways, you know. "Not using the English language" does not equate to "myopia and isolationism".

This whole argument on the choice of filesharing networks is laughable. Unless Japan starts firewalling all foreigners from their networks, there's no such thing as "isolation" on the internet. I have no problem accessing Japanese networks -- the software required is freely obtainable, all you need to do is learn how to use it. This is no different from the initial software acclimatization needed for FTP, Usenet, DC, IRC, whatever varieties of P2P programs available out there. Furthermore, it makes sense for them to stick to their own communities -- considering Japan's telecommunications architecture, it's like the difference between LAN and a 56kbps line to Hawaii (which also represents the proportion of the "international community" who have an interest in Japanese media). If you're actually complaining that they're making it hard for you to download tentacle porn and video game music, you're probably a few rungs lower in the hierarchy of nerddom.

I think the problem is that the people who are complaining arent actually nerds, they're simply lazy. These are younger types that are use to the point-and-click Windows world.

I'm not trying to come off as fucking RTM here but does anyone else remember shit like fucking around on Telnet? Theres some kind of disconnect between the people in their late twenties and people in their early twenties and younger. Its as if people my age didn't pass anything down in terms of how to use the internet as a fucking tool beyond Google or Altavista. Yeesh.

Have you talked to the younger generation? I think it's for the best we didn't teach them any actual skills.

ALTAVISTA? What the fuck is this, 1998?

Way to not read my post, Fatman who ate Jake

I'm pretty sure that stealing is frowed upon in most cultures, mate.

Yeah, way to use logic to counteract a straight up Harvey Birdman reference.

HA HA HA.

Up.

I couldn't give a fuck about some Nipponjin gobbledy-gook that I can't read.

The point is that the Japanese using their own networks outside of the wider filesharing networks can't be explained away with a language barrier, because for some reason, the Russians, using a cyrillic alphabet are perfectly fine with using international filesharing networks.

Hey, my grandfather created computer networks to keep it out of the hands of those commie bastards! :mad:

Way to make a post that had nothing for me to comment on short of a very dated search engine reference, Jerkwad who loves James Caan for some reason

Ok Brady, you're absolutely correct in that I'm a fucking American, but how did I get pulled into this argument? :tpg: This just flew out of nowhere buddy.

Peter referred to you obliquely, so Brady decided to correct him.

Well the question or something to that effect was if we had that many Japanese users and you're like the only known user who is ethnic Japanese that would be close to that.

Okay yah what Mo0 said.

And someone put a gun to your head to comment on what I posted? Or did you just do it to "hear yourself speak"?

на носу, фашистской свинье

I'm a facist? We faught Nazis together - or are you so quick to say something you forgot we're the Capitalists? :)

Ah ok, I was just quickly browsing through the posts at work so I must have missed Peter's reference / didn't realize I was being set up as an example.

To that note, I don't know if I apply to the example Peter has given... I am of Japanese origin by blood, but I was born and raised here. I was born into, and raised in a community of maybe 60-70% of the population being Japanese or at least Japanese-American decent. But that was back in the 80's. After the stock market crash of 1990 (or was it 91/92? I forget), the environment of that particular community drastically changed. All the Japanese business men who came here with their families for business moved back, and the Japaense School I attended almost went bankrupt (just to give you an idea of how drastic a change was, in my first grade year there were 2 classes of kids of about 30 students each in my same grade. By the time I graduated 6th grade, there were 7 of us from the same class).

Yes, it's true most Japanese people stick to their own kind, and I can think of few little old ladies living in Gardena, CA whom have immigrated here 40 years ago and still can live here in the states without having to speak a dime of English. I can vouch for some truth in that. But that's also true for a lot of Mexican, Taiwanese, Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, Indian, and any other ethnic groups out there who live in America, bring their own culture, and still live in it as if they are living in their own country. With that said, I don't think it's fair in the argument that Japanese are the only people who "don't change." Bigblah has already demonstrated this argument I think, so I'll end my statement here.

NO. Any network that is connected to the Internet is inherently international. You think accessing a bittorrent tracker hosted on a server in Chicago is, in topological terms, any different from connecting to Winny nodes in Tokyo? You think Japanese P2P software is inaccessible because you can't read "Nipponjin gobbledy-gook"? There's an english language pack for Share. You think they don't index and publish their resources publicly? There's hashdb. Why piggyback on a foreign filesharing network when they have successful, homegrown solutions which guarantee much faster speeds due to the geographical proximity of connected peers?