Temporal Paralysis

I’ve taken the liberty at looking at Google’s newest offering: Knol. It’s essentially a so-called collection of wiki articles “written by supposedly professionals,” allowing for individuals to submit their credit card or telephone numbers to Google before they can be “verified” as credible authors.

My point wasn’t about the entire concept: Citizendium already has such mechanisms to ensure the professional take on their articles. (And, by the way, Ars Technica has already done the dirty work of “analysing Knol’s potential flaws.”) I am referring to the insane amount of medical listings offered by Knol.

Although my National Service term is coming to an end, I do, however, speak out in favour of my organization. Serving in the emergency ambulance unit, I find it interesting that there is a public domain for information regarding diseases and various ailments we sometimes attend to. It’s not so much about the availability of such diseases that is of concern. It’s rather about how the public might misconstrue such articles as “true and verified.” (That is because of how Knol works: verfication of authors is as simple as making a credit card or telephone number, and send them to Google.)

What Ars Technica pointed out about the potential abuse of the system is just a tip of the iceberg. My organization’s concerns will be how to deal with the “Mr. Smarty Pants” patients/relatives who think they are above the paramedics in dictating what kind of treatment they/their kin are supposed to be entitled with.

Hopefully SCDF will deal with this situation.

In all its seriousness, I cannot help but think that this is the inevitable process of any cultural meme/fad that have made mainstream popularity.

Like it or not, anime, as a subculture, hobby and an entertainment subgenre, has gone “mainstream”. Just look at the US Kinokuniya bookstores, Animax’s ventures in the Americas (“No usted, América! ¡Los locutores españoles ganaran siempre!”), and not to mention, “The One That Rhymes With Fedex”‘s ventures into simultaneous broadcasts of anime shows from Japan.

I’will speak my mind out: if you’re disillusioned by the crass commercialization of the anime (as a hobby & a lifestyle), time to move on to better hobbies. One that will not garner any mainstream following, is actually healthier than the current sedentary lifestyle promoted in the anime community.

This topic was primarily motivated by my previous post, and initially I wanted it as part of that post. It turns out that this topic merits its own post, so I decided to make one.

In this post, I decided to look at how various content industries tackle copyright issues with the advent of the Internet. I look at the book, music and motion picture industries, because these three industries have been traditionally linked with one another as heralds of content creation and distribution. I do realized that video game and comics industry (which in actuality a subset of the book industry) has become prominent in today’s content industries, so I will tackle them on some time in the future.

Books have not been in the limelight of the copyright war for most of the time, apart from that J.K. Rowling affair with that fan-made encyclopedia. (In my opinion, while she’s legally right, seeing the other party’s contributions to get her work noticed, I just don’t see why she can’t collaborate with Steve to make the encyclopaedia.) In fact, increasingly more contemporary authors (or rather, those that are more well-known on the Internet) have made leeways into letting their audiences preview their works on-line, in order to attract newer ones, or just making their message heard. Using people-friendly approach to copyright (via Creative Commons licenses), they make that intimate connection to the people, giving people some form of informed decision when they decided to buy the books. That way, the people doesn’t feel like they’re being treated like cash cows ready to be milked.

The music industry, or rather, the recording industry, has become like the sporting world of cycling: there’s still good stuff in there, but most of the time, it’s tainted in stupidity, ludicrity and, ironically, being the pall-bearers of copyright. Most of the copyright wars (that is currently being waged between individuals and the companies) are being fought in this industry, but it is also in the recording industry where lots of bollocks starts to come in: suing off dead people and grandmothers? Exhorbitant amounts of money? News that all that downloading isn’t all that, you know, BAD? It feels like back in the late 19th century, when theatre groups complained that the motion picture photography (was it Edison who invented it?) is stealing their right to earn exhorbitant amounts of money from the viewers. History repeats itself again, I suppose.

The musicians and artistes behind the labels have decided, enough is enough: Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have distributed their music on the Internet (for free in some instances), giving a legal platform for people to listen. I think this industry dismissed, and similarly missed the opportunity to capitalize on, the leverage the Internet has given on the consumers and the artistes. In my opinion, why bother with The American Idol and chase for that singing contract, when you can start your own band/career, complete with full freedom and control of your works, via the Internet?

The motion picture industry: now that’s what I call a Stalin approach. It’s a lot more complicated for this industry: you got the television, you got the silver screen, and you got those straight-to-DVD ones. It’s like a muddled picture when I tried to look into this industry: on one hand they’re very successful, despite their claims that piracy kills their profits. (I think there’s that incessant need for greed, I guess, to pursue the right to claim exhorbitant amounts of money from the people.) They sent 2 search dogs in Malaysia to stamp out illegal DVD distribution businesses; enforced a global clampdown against distributions of copyrighted films and camera recording in cinemas; launched that famous video clip, saying that downloading = piracy = stealing (so, downloading my Linux ISOs is considered illegal? Thank you for corrupting the mainstream, guys.); and ties up with various ISPs, regional and government organizations, inadvertently stamping on people’s privacy in the process. (Thanks, Korea Herald.)

So you have, on one hand, the book industry: actually, it’s becoming more like an author’s market, the publishers are merely providing a service (as compared to having ambitions to take over the world) to them in technical, legal and financial assistance. Not really a money-making venture, but so long as there’s demand, there’s business, right? So really I perceive that the book industry is like a calm lake, adapting to new evolutions to the way people acquire and digest information.

The recording industry: it’s one big mess, and I can say that anyone who’s ever heard of RIAA, the most [in]famous entity in the world, believed that RIAA are just out there to take away people’s money, like when they decided to withhold the money gained from litigation. It’s akin to seeing a pristine garden being turned into a landfill.

The motion picture industry: I guess what I pictured just now was only on the silver screen side of the industry. I think the television side of the industry is heavily tied with the distribution of DVDs, so it could be a problem, but it’s somewhat mitigated with syndication/licensing business, where foreign distributors/broadcasters have to pay a certain amount of money (in terms of hundreds of thousands of US dollars) to get the show broadcast in their place. (This is why Odex is able to rope in those new shows from Japan: because they also sell the shows to Mediacorp via MobTV or Arts Central to make some money.) A similar analogy would be seeing a Freeport copper mine: environmentally hazardous, but without it, other industries and local people could not flourish.

So really, this copyright war is generating some interesting outcomes, from two different extremes. It’s complicated, I know. I tried explaining this war to some of my contemporaries, and I gave up when they decided to talk on topics like boy-girl relationship and viewing porn on mobile phones. (Yeah, my Tiger generation is really f***ed up. Pity, because the Dragon/Snake generation, at least in the perspective of my significant other, are about the only ones who are into anime, like I am.)

Enough tangents. I think this whole “illegal downloading is bad” business: it’s more like a propaganda. Sure, it’s illegal under copyright law (which I believed is a part of every country’s constitutions around the world), but when your citizens, and I mean millions of people around the world, are doing the same acts, and the industry is not badly misshapen by the peer-to-peer file-sharing activities, you really need to relook into those copyright policies. You’re potentially risking labelling pretty much the whole world as criminals because of P2P activities, which is what most ‘Net-active citizens might do. I’m sure there are parents reading this blog: ask yourself. The industry isn’t bleeding like America, and you have all those companies, and their lobbies, pushing your government to outlaw an activity which is commonplace everywhere, and does not hurt them very significantly. If your children do P2P, then these lobby groups are going to label your children as “criminals.” Silly right?

That’s exactly what’s happening right now. It’s high time to demand for a copyright law reform.

Apparently, the company behind those pesky C&D orders — without realizing they don’t have jurisdiction outside of Singapore — have mended their idiotic ways, and decided that pursuing against downloaders is not a good option. Instead, they come up with a better solution: tie up with an established video-on-demand platform (in Singapore, that is) and deliver the promise that they failed to cement 10 months back: video-on-demand anime service.

The offer comes with a S$10 subscription package. However, because of regional licensing issues (remember our C&D letters?), this offer is only available within Singapore. That’s too bad, anyway. Similar VOD services in the US are also region-restrictive, so both sides of the world can’t really complain much, unless they are fluent in Japanese, are living in Japan or both, in which my reply would be: why are you bothering with fansubs?

Oh, and they’re riddled with digital rights managment (DRM) code.

I have to concede that Odex has really mended their ways, knowingly that their stand against downloaders are as concrete as buildings on sand, so they really parted their offensive ways, and take a more softer, subtler approach. On a similar note, this news article also confirms of their efforts in bringing in all those new anime shows directly from Japan, same week telecast. That makes Singapore the first country to have new anime shows being broadcasted outside Japan. (I’m not really sure about Hong Kong or Taiwan, apart from the fact that their fanbase is 10,000 times more vocal and more active than Singapore.)

This brings me to the next topic, which I’ll rather elaborate in the next post.

From Torrentfreak, a Malaysian system operator working in an ISP there has discovered that his company has been secretly deploying privacy invasive tactics to track down users of Bittorrent. I’ve no idea what the hell has happened, but I need to inform the bloggers there about this tactic.

This has come in the wake of their deployment of 2 MPAA-financed search dogs to the country, sniffing out DVDs in private vehicles and transports to stamp out the illegitimate pirate DVD business. I do not have such irks against this operation: indeed those behind the illegal business need to be put down. But when you decided to monitor your citizens like an Orweillian version of 1984, I think it’s high time somebody needs to shake and rattle the government, don’t you think?

Nobody has ever tried linking fiction with real life. I’ve made that attempt, and using animé shows as a reference for real-life situations (Kurogane, I’m looking at you! — though my guess’ on you fapping to more traps instead XD ).

So now, my thoughts and opinions.

Datuk Seri Anwar, if nobody has ever heard of him, was formerly under the deputy prime ministerial position under Tun Mahathir‘s government. He was supposed to succeed Mahathir until a series of allegations and counterattacks led to him being arrested for charges of sodomy and corruption, which recently the Supreme Court had only just overturned. Now he heads prominently in the Opposition front against the incumbent Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Barisan National-led government.

When I first thought of the current turn of events that is happening in Malaysia, I was immediately thought of the showdown as the same as Code Geass: both are heading straight into ludicrity.

To equate Datuk Seri Anwar with Lelouch Lamperouge, I must first give my thoughts as to why I did so.

In the Malaysian context, Datuk Seri Anwar was, by any account, liberal. While he did made contradictary policies back in his tenure in various ministerial positions, one must understand that in order to achieve the deputy prime ministerial post, various concessions must be made to appease the overall-in-charge. His affliliations with various prominent Western-oriented think-tanks and figures is in direct conflict with the government’s stance on Malay supremacy over Malaysia.

His insistence on following the IMF’s plans during the Asian Financial Crisis ultimately led Tun Mahathir to intervene in the financial front despite of allowing the free market to take its course. The eventual reining of the Malaysian economy, in contrast with her neighbours’ demise as economic powerhouses of South East Asia (minus Singapore) led some to believe in Mahathir’s acumen in preventing the downward spiral of the country’s wealth, and hence, people believed that Anwar’s economic policies will only resulted in facing the same situation as that of Indonesia and Thailand.

By and large, the loss of BN’s seats of power in 5 states of Malaya was largely attributed to the charisma of Datuk Seri Anwar, and his ability to lead a united Opposition front, despite having PAS, a conservative party, tagging alongside DAP, which disavow the idea of a Social Contract. The ascent of the current Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in 2002, was the result of economic stability that Malaysians enjoyed. The anger of the imprisonment of Datuk Seri Anwar died down, since the symbol of his unfair treatment, Tun Mahathir, has agreed to step down to have a new team recharge the country.

In a sense, Anwar Ibrahim is like Lelouch, in particular their potential to succeed the current leadership. Lelouch, in particular, might have succeed the Emperor, much the same as Anwar was to succeed Mahathir. Lelouch’s descent was also similar to Anwar’s, in which forces outside their will forced them out of that successsor lines. Lelouch’s mother died in mysterious circusmstances, and his mysterious existence in Area 11, along with his sister (sans R2), is also similar to Anwar’s eventual imprisonment, and subsequent low-profile existence before 2004.

And both have become symbols of rebellion and anger against the status quo.

I reserved the most damning similarity between them in this paragraph: their actions will ultimately led to a battle royale and a massive casualty count. Collateral damage will be expensive, and as seen in Code Geass season 1, Lelouch had to confront to the idea of indirectly killing off his half-sister, Euphemia, in order to ascend the icon of rebellion. (Were it not for sloppy plot development, that is.) Anwar will face such obstacles, too. The economy has been rattled since the news of his arrest this afternoon, and I am sure investor confidence is sliding down with all the political manoeuvring. Deep social tensions will definitely issue out of the difference in ideologies between the right heartlander Malays, the new urban Malays, and the various non-Malay populations.

At the heart of this opinion, in my view, is the quesion of whether was it all worth demolishing the country’s fragile economic stability, in the wake of rising costs of living as a result of an inflated oil price.

This post is more of a list of animé shows I’m currently keeping track or watching, because I don’t believe that there will be one season that will produce the best of shows in a year. When you realized the pattern concerning the quality of shows being belted out year by year, you just need to take a step back and, y’know, “take it slowly,” like a connoisseur.

Some of them are actually from my purchase of DVDs. The rest are shows I’ve either picked up from the Spring, or shows I’m anticipating to watch in this season.

[Note: Shows on DVD are coded in red, Spring shows are in pink and Summer shows in yellow.]

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid:
This Funimation-licensed series spots a more compacted, and definitely better, packaging than the ones from ADV (I now owned all three FMP! animé series). I’ve not actually started watching this: I’m on my halfway mark on the first FMP! series, and this is what I call “taking the slow train.” My first impressions of this package, however, is very, err, impressive. If there was a time when people believed Funimation can take on ADV’s backlog of licenses, now’s the time.

Gundam Wing:
This full package (which was markedly generic without any extras such as booklets or posters), was bought via impulse. However, the impulse was justified by the fact that Gundam 00 was somewhat based on the same premise as Gundam Wing: the introduction gives an overview of the backdrop, cue in the various factions, then “shock-and-awe” with the main protagonist diving and decimating said factions. So far I’m enjoying the momentum.

Blood+:
I’ve entered the 3rd disc (Eps 11-15), which was at the Vietnam arc. I could’ve swore that Sony was making me ache, to wait for the show to serialize in DVD form. I also could not wait for the next batch of volume (I bought the Part 1 boxset, because I don’t favour buying volumes bit by bit) to be released. Damn I love Saya, and be damned, I’ve bought myself its Dark Horse incarnation, too.

Code Geass: Lelouch of The Rebellion R2:
This has got to be a joke. The show has started to roll into a series of unbelievable events. It raises my suspension of disbelief, and I’m afraid there will be a time when this show just “jump the shark.” And I’m feeling it’d come sooner than I expected. (On a lighter side, I’m amused at Lelouch’s turn of events: a dead Shirley is one less of the dream of the good times — Episode 8 —. In any case, the path to Hell is often laced with good intentions.)

Macross Frontier:
I came across a blog post regarding this show. Actually, I’ve never watched the original, “Super Dimensional Fortress Macross” or its sequels. (Actually, I’m confused between this franchise and the “American-corrupted Robotech” series that people claimed is related to the former.) The pacing and story development, however, is not taxing on new viewers to depend on having background knowledge of the show in order to appreciate the series. This is one thing I find great things about Macross Frontier: it reinvogrates the franchise, enticing new viewers to the show, and captivating them with the essence that makes Macross. (I don’t mind the premise “that a civilian pop singer is all it takes to take down an entire alien army,” because it wouldn’t be called “Macross” without such premise, right?)

Nabari no Ou:
I’m taking this very slowly, because the previous 2 shows have taken up most of my viewing time. Anyways, still on Episode 4, where the protagonist is in the samurai girl’s village. It’s basically a setting for the tension between the inheritor of Shinra Banshou and the ninja clans that wants to lay claim on its powers.

Soul Eater:
Silly show, but is compensated by “badass” attitude and “I can do my best” spirit. The “resonance” between Maka and Soul is what keeping me to the show, alongside Black Star’s dumb antics. Death’s OCD-induced obsession with symmetry, however, irked me to some extent, but he has that “cool guy” look, so it balances out. Anyway, who would’ve thought out the series of events in Episode 6? 本当におかしいな！

Toshokan Sensou:
By right this show should’ve been over already, but I’m catching up. I’m having distractions from the blogging circles regarding the finale’s anticlimatic settings (or was it penultimate’s anticlimatic?). Some hated it, some liked it. I’ll have to watch it to confirm my review of the series. Still, having to see a ditz character for most of the time is like seeing yourself when you’re drunk. I don’t mind, because as others said, “it’s the character development and relationships” that is the hook for the show.

Nagisaka Haruka’s Secret:
When I watched the first episode of the series (in RAW, which the experience is like having studied standard French in school, dumping oneself in France, and become confounded by the various dialects and accents spoken in reality), I felt that the show may have a “unique” trait that separates it from your typical cookie-cutter lovecom shows. Protagonist likes the “princess darling” of the school, finds out she’s into “nerdy” hobbies, said princess was found out by protagonist, goes out in tears. Protagonist goes out to remedy the situation, ends up riling up the whole world. Just by that episode, I decided to take on this show, and seeing how most of the shows I watched always revolve around big boobs, badass characters and action, I think I’m going to take on a different direction in entertainment, and enjoy these slice-of-life, “normal” shows.

By putting feeds from both pro-anti-copyright (read: sympathisers to the anti-copyright movement) websites, pasting a call to save Shareaza, a P2P program “hijacked” by media companies via proxy to ensure its demise, and various other topics of copyright issue, you might have already concluded that I am mostly in favour against the companies chasing after people.

I have surpassed the propaganda regarding the illegality of file-sharing (in which the act should not constitute a criminal offence, because otherwise sharing my picture files to my friends is also considered criminal, by definition), but I also acknowledged the threat of criminal syndicates using piracy as a tool to forward their illegal activities. (This is in regards to a blog post about the bounty on the two anti-piracy dogs, which also diverge on how the same syndicates are pushing pornography as part of the illicit DVD trading — some of which involved child pornography.)

So, wby do I consider these companies’ threats as a credible source for concern?

If you consider the classfication of the various media industry lobby groups — RIAA, MPAA, IFPI, BPI etc. — they bring along the political power to sway government decisions. Already several countries in Europe and in North America are pushing for authoritarian laws that call for censorship of the Internet, capping Internet connectivity due to “heavy usage of the bandwidth,” introducing restrictive technologies that may introduce threatening software into people’s computers, etc. In short, when there is an oligarchy in the political decision-making, you’re bound to have certain civil rights and liberties squashed like ants being stamped onto.

It is necessary that people need to understand this, and ensure that there must be a legitimate checks and balances so that there will not be an abuse of power. The copyright wars is not about protecting the companies’ private interests, or championing the right of composers/artistes/authors to profit their works.

(In that case, however, news have been reported that RIAA, which supposed to champion the rights of music artistes, have been withhelding money made from various litigations with file-sharers, stating “administrative difficulties” in reimbursing the money to affected singers. The state of P2P technology is such that you’ll bound to have thousands of artistes affected by P2P, if not a million. I think it’s another money-grabbing attempt disguised as a legitimate assault against piracy that may or may not inflict any sort of “losses” to these artistes.)

The copyright wars is about retaining these oligarches’ status quo. The Internet has “truly democratise” the people’s wishes and wants, and this will reverberate very violently to businesses still sticking to their autocratic business models.

The STCC trip did not warranted a photofest for me because 1.) I don’t personally “own” a digital compact camera suited for the event, 2.) the point of lugging a video camera is to capture any “continuous series of events” that warranted the need to capture a certain time frame (simple English: even though I have a video camera, it’s 3 years old, and probably I’d be looking more like a tourist rather than an enthusiastic con-goer).

So instead, I shall point you to my friend, who’s been able to capture most of the events in his shiny DSLR *waves fist*.

And this Cosfest 2008, was also a missed opportunity for me, becuase 1.) I never planned in advance, and 2.) family decided to take a side-trip to make preparations for the eventual migration from this Gattaca-subtle environment.

As for everything else, I don’t know what to write.