Awesome Stuff: New Ways To Play

from the you-done-changed-the-game dept

Kickstarter has launched a lot of brand new games, both video- and otherwise, but it's also home to plenty of people working on ways to enhance and alter existing games, and those people are the stars of this week's Awesome Stuff.

Bridging The Game Gap: Japanese For Gamers

For certain game genres and amongst large portions of the gaming community, Japan is where it's at. Between JRPGs and visual novels, Japan has been pumping out critically acclaimed and hugely popular games whose titles are often barely even heard in the English speaking world, leaving the avid gamers who know about them to campaign for translations and English releases — or to pirate and turn to the fan translation community. This project offers a new alternative for true fans who want to learn something while they're at it: an extensive free video course in speaking Japanese, aimed at gamers with a focus on the language as it is used in video games.

Swirling Lightshow In The Corner Pocket: OpenPool

At this point, pool is timeless — but that doesn't mean it can't be gussied up with some cool technology. OpenPool is a projection mapping system that uses an Xbox Kinect to project a moving, interactive, responsive image onto a pool table. Not only is it a really impressive visual effect, it opens up all kinds of possibilities for new dynamic twists on the game. The coolest part? It's a DIY kit. Combine their software and ceiling mount with your own Kinect, projector and computer, and build an OpenPool system yourself.

Edward Snowden, Jack Of Spades: WIRETAP Cards

I know, I know — I featured a deck of cards two weeks ago too. I wasn't going to include another, but the WIRETAP deck is far too fitting to ignore. It's a full set of original hand-drawn playing cards with suit pips that look at you. The court cards are modelled after important players from the NSA saga and the broader world of privacy and government spying — including Edward Snowden, Jack of Spades.

Filed Under: awesome stuff, edward snowden, japan, pool

DailyDirt: Comparing US Schools To...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The US education system is constantly being compared to other school systems -- with the underlying theme that the US might copy some of the best practices and put them to use for our kids. Sure, it's good to take a look around and see if there's a better way to teach kids, but some practices might be difficult to adopt (eg. eliminating long summer vacations). Here are just a few links on what we might learn from foreign school systems.

• Japan's education system may teach us that instituting strict standards testing is unproductive. Teaching to the test and similar practices has been blamed for creating a less innovative culture and students who are less prepared to adapt to changes. [url]
• Another suggestion is to pay teachers more, so that teachers have resources and incentives to become better teachers. Countries like South Korea, Singapore and Finland pay their teachers well and provide social prestige for educators. [url]
• The role of American parents in their kids' primary school education differs somewhat widely versus Chinese parents. One big difference seems to be that Chinese parents blame their kids' lack of effort, but American parents more often blame the lack of ability of the child, teacher or school. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: china, education, japan, lessons, parents, schools, south korea, standardized testing, students, teaching, tests

If The NSA Isn't Engaged In Economic Espionage, Why Is The USTR Considered 'A Customer' Of Intelligence?

from the simple-questions dept

We just had a story about how Australia used its equivalent of the NSA to do economic espionage for the sake of improving trade deals and helping private companies by passing along useful info they gleaned from spying on the Japanese. It had become so common that companies getting the info would joke that it had "fallen off the back of a truck." Of course, many have argued that the US is obviously engaged in similar activity. The most damning evidence, of course, was the release a few months ago of details of how the NSA spied on Petrobas, the Brazilian oil giant.

The US has sworn up, down, left and right that it does not use the NSA for economic espionage. In August, the Department of Defense issued a statement to the Washington Post saying:

“The Department of Defense does engage” in computer network exploitation, according to an e-mailed statement from an NSA spokesman, whose agency is part of the Defense Department. “The department does ***not*** engage in economic espionage in any domain, including cyber.”

Those triple stars were in the original. That was before the Petrobas revelation. After that came out, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper tried to explain that away, arguing that it was not for economic espionage at all, but to get a better sense of whether there was an upcoming financial crisis.

What we do not do, as we have said many times, is use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of - or give intelligence we collect to - US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.

Of course, it's a very blurry line between using that information to create policies that help US companies and just giving the information to them directly. Perhaps it's true that the NSA doesn't hand out the information it gleans from foreign companies directly to US companies to help them understand, say, how a foreign product is built -- but reverse engineering is pretty good these days, so it's doubtful that too many US companies need that kind of help anyway. Instead, it seems to be just as nefarious, and certainly a form of economic espionage, to use this information to create trade policies that clearly boost certain US interests.

But that's certainly happening. The NY Times' giant profile of the NSA's activities that came out earlier this month included a list of "customers" for the NSA. Pay close attention to the last two on the list:

This huge investment in collection is driven by pressure from the agency’s “customers,” in government jargon, not only at the White House, Pentagon, F.B.I. and C.I.A., but also spread across the Departments of State and Energy, Homeland Security and Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative.

Now, one can make a (potentially compelling) argument that of course it's US policy to try to improve situations for American companies. And that's perfectly reasonable -- but it seems like a clearly bogus argument for the NSA to say it "does not do economic espionage" just because it (allegedly) does not do one particular tidbit of economic espionage: directly handing companies information. If, instead, it's spying on foreign companies and then providing that information to the USTR, you can assure that two things are happening: economic policies that help the special interests that have a close relationship with the USTR are getting extra favorable policies in their place, and some of that information is seeping out of the USTR to those companies anyway.

And we've already seen, repeatedly, how the USTR appears to have very cozy relations with certain legacy industries, while having almost no relationship at all with younger, more innovative industries. As such, not only is the NSA clearly engaged in economic espionage, it's doing so to the detriment of actual innovation and economic growth, by using this information to prop up legacy industries, while handicapping the innovative industries.

Filed Under: australia, brazil, economic espionage, japan, nsa, surveillance, ustr
Companies: petrobas

Japan Likely To Pass New Secrecy Law That Would Put Whistleblowers And Journalists In Jail

from the exactly-wrong dept

One of the many worrying aspects of the Snowden saga is an attempt in the US to reframe whistleblowing as treason, and to make it harder for people to reveal information to journalists or the public that might embarrass the government there. However, things are even worse in other parts of the world. In Japan, for example, there are plans to bring in a new secrecy law that will make whistleblowing even more risky, as Reuters reports:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is planning a state secrets act that critics say could curtail public access to information on a wide range of issues, including tensions with China and the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

The new law would dramatically expand the definition of official secrets and journalists convicted under it could be jailed for up to five years.

The law has multiple problems:

Legal and media experts say the law, which would impose harsh penalties on those who leak secrets or try to obtain them, is too broad and vague, making it impossible to predict what would come under its umbrella. The lack of an independent review process leaves wide latitude for abuse, they say.

"Basically, this bill raises the possibility that the kind of information about which the public should be informed is kept secret eternally," Tadaaki Muto, a lawyer and member of a task force on the bill at the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, told Reuters.

Given that the political bloc supporting Abe has a comfortable majority in both houses of the Japanese parliament, it seems likely that the new gagging law will be passed without much problem. That's especially retrogressive as the beneficial effect Snowden's leaks have had becomes clearer by the day, especially in terms of starting a global debate about key areas like surveillance, privacy, and government accountability.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+

Filed Under: free speech, japan, journalism, whistleblowers

Once Again, If Copyright Enforcement Doesn't Improve The Bottom Line, What's The Point?

from the serious-question dept

We've been asking for years which is more important for content creators: stopping piracy or increasing revenue? It's a question they hate to respond to, because every time I ask it, the responses often involve ad hominem attacks and anger. I've even seen a very small number of content creators claim that stopping piracy is more important, though I can't understand how that makes any sense at all. Think of it this way: if you could know, with certainty, that you as an artist could make more money and have a bigger fan base, but the "trade off" is also knowing that a larger group of people would effectively "free ride" and not pay for your content, why is that a problem? After all, in that scenario, everyone is better off. The artist is better off because they're making more money and have a larger fanbase. The fans are better off because more of them get to know of an artist they like. So where is the problem?

Yet, nearly all copyright policy seems to be focused on increasing enforcement to try to stop piracy, with almost no concern as to whether or not it actually helps the bottom line. Time and time again we see draconian enforcement rules put in place with no evidence that it actually helps sales. At all. The latest example comes from Japan. As you may recall, last year, Japan passed some insanely draconian anti-piracy laws that made unauthorized downloading a criminal offense. The law has been in effect for almost a year and the results are staggering.

While the observed reporting of file sharing has certainly dropped, so have sales -- and by a very, very wide margin. And this even includes digital sales, which are growing rapidly almost everywhere else.

From October 1 2012, those downloading copyrighted material without permission faced a potential two year jail sentence. But while users of Japan’s favorite P2P networks plummeted, sales have not been positively affected. Total music sales this year so far are down 7% on the same period last year, but digital sales are even worse – down 24% since the law was introduced.

From the numbers, it looks like there was a brief boost in sales right after the law went into place, and then they pretty much dropped off a cliff. This is similar to the effect we've seen elsewhere as well. There's a brief adjustment period where people may buy a little more briefly, but it fades very, very quickly.

Once again, this shows how ratcheting up enforcement (even to insane levels like criminalizing file sharing) doesn't actually help. Instead, listening to what consumers want, providing better, more open, more consumer friendly solutions does actually get consumers to spend more.

Filed Under: copyright, enforcement, japan, revenue

Just As US Finally Realizes Copyright Terms May Be Too Long, Japan Looks To Make Them Longer

from the welfare-for-musicians dept

As even the more traditional maximalists in the US have started to admit that copyright terms are too long, it appears some are still leaning in the opposite direction. Maira Sutton points us to the news that Japan is now looking to retroactively lengthen copyright terms from life plus 50 years to life plus 70 years. Of course, we've gone over this many times before. There simply is no legitimate rationale for such a thing. We're told that the purpose of locking up the public domain behind a government granted monopoly like copyright is to give the creator an extra incentive to create, and to keep the work away from the public domain for a limited period of time. If the creation was made under the rules at the time, then clearly the incentive was enough. To go back and retroactively change the bargain between the creator and the public is to unilaterally change the terms of the deal by flat out taking away the public's right to those works.

The only way in which retroactive copyright term extension makes sense is if copyright is a welfare system for creators, in which the public is taxed to support the estates of wealthy content creators. And, yes, it is wealthy content creators (or, rather, their children and grandchildren) who are the beneficiaries of such extensions, along with the major multinational corporations who hold most of those copyrights. Studies have shown that the overwhelming majority of beneficiaries of extending copyright are not actual content creators, and certainly not "poor" content creators, but "incumbent holders of major back-catalogues, be they record companies, ageing rock stars or, increasingly, artists' estates." The "poor artists" who are often cited in support of such extensions are not even in the picture, because the works of poor artists who died 50 years ago are not making much money today. It's the huge rockstars' and their works that are still making money today.

So why is Japan trying to tax the public, to take away their rights, all to support the giant record labels and the grandchildren of rock stars?

Of course, this is hardly the first time this debate has come up. We wrote about a similar plan in Japan nearly six years ago, which went nowhere. Hopefully, more sensible copyright experts in Japan prevail. Either way, the fact that Japan is now a big part of the TPP, and wants to help "lead" the discussions to finalize that agreement should be seen as worrying -- since it may seek to put in clauses that would limit the abilities of countries like the US to roll back copyright terms.

Filed Under: copyright, copyright length, japan, terms

Japan's Prime Minister Mocks TPP Protestors On Facebook

from the taking-concerns-seriously? dept

Japan recently agreed to join in the negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that has many significant problems, which we've been highlighting for years. Apparently, Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has no interest in listening to those concerns. Some TPP protestors showed up at an Abe event in Tokyo, and his response was to mock and belittle them and their concerns on Facebook.

“I was touched that so many of you came to Shibuya,” wrote the prime minister, whose frequent Facebook posts cover everything from a college reunion to a foreign policy debate. “There were some leftists with microphones and drums in the audience who tried hard, with hatred, to interrupt our speeches. But I must say that gave us fight. Thank You. A child in front laughed them off, saying ‘Quiet!’ Admirable. Please remember that those are representatives of embarrassing adults.”

The Facebook post has since been deleted, but it raises serious concerns about how seriously the Japanese government will listen to the widespread concerns about the excessive nature of the TPP. Making things even more bizarre, when a reporter asked a spokesperson from Abe's office about why the post had been taken down, the person said it hadn't and was still available on his own computer.

Filed Under: japan, shinzo abe, tpp

Japan The Latest Country To Mistakenly Say Google Is 'Responsible' For Autocomplete Results

from the that's-not-how-it-works dept

Following on similar results in France and Italy, a court in Japan has ridiculously ordered Google to change its autocomplete results after a guy there got upset that when people searched for his name, one of the autocomplete results involved his name and a criminal act which he did not commit. As we've explained over and over again, autocomplete is not someone at Google suggesting this is what the guy did, but rather an algorithmic look at what other people are searching for. Censoring that is silly. It's censoring factual information. It is true that the search on those terms leads to an apparently faked document which slandered the guy, but you'd think that any legal action would be targeted at whoever made that site, not at Google.

And, yet, the court has said that Google must block the truthful display of what people have searched for.

"A situation has been created by which illegally submitted documents can be easily viewed," chief judge Hisaki Kobayashi was quoted as saying by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

It seems bizarre that the response to this is to go after Google instead of whoever created and uploaded the false document. Get rid of that document, by the person who allegedly really slandered the guy, and you likely solve the overall problem, without trying to interfere with Google's algorithms.

As the article notes, an injunction had been issued earlier in the case, which Google ignored. Also, Google doesn't even run a data center in Japan, so it's unclear how much jurisdiction the Japanese court even has over forcing Google to change its system.

Either way, it's getting fairly ridiculous to see so many courts blame Google for the fact that it can find stuff that other people did.

Filed Under: autocomplete, japan
Companies: google

Police In Japan Are Asking ISPs To Start Blocking Tor

from the really-now? dept

The National Police Agency in Japan is apparently asking ISPs in that country to "voluntarily" block the use of Tor, the well-known and widely used system for anonymously surfing the internet.

An expert panel to the NPA, which was looking into measures to combat crimes abusing the Tor system, compiled a report on April 18 stating that blocking online communications at the discretion of site administrators will be effective in preventing such crimes. Based on the recommendation, the NPA will urge the Internet provider industry and other entities to make voluntary efforts to that effect.

This is an extreme and dangerous overreaction. Yes, some people abuse the anonymity of Tor to do illegal things. Just as some people abuse the anonymity of cash to do bad things. But we don't then outlaw cash because of this. There are many, many reasons why people have good reason to seek out an anonymizing tool like Tor to protect their identity. What if they're whistle blowing on organized crime or corruption (say) in the police force? As for the fear that it's being used for criminal activity, that doesn't mean that police cannot identify them through other means. We've seen time and time again people leave digital tracks in other ways when they're committing crimes. Yes, it makes life more difficult for police, and it means they have to do actual detective work, but that's what their job is.

Filed Under: blocking, isps, japan, tor

Japanese Law Enforcement Uses New Copyright Law To Arrest 27 File Sharers

from the lock-'em-up dept

Last year, we noted that Japan had put in place ridiculously draconian copyright laws that criminalized unauthorized downloads, DVD backups and even watching infringing YouTube videos in some cases. And, of course, what good is a law if it's not used? So, Japanese law enforcement apparently went on a big raid, searching 124 locations and arresting 27 people. Those arrested may face between two and ten years in jail, because that's a reasonable punishment for sharing something. I don't see how this makes anyone respect copyright any more, or gives anyone any additional incentive to support the legacy players who are using this system to put fans in jail.

Filed Under: arrests, criminal copyright, file sharing, japan, law enforcement