Now I see what you mean. Of course, the Japanese practice of bundling a wireless (cellular) data plan with a wired broadband plan is something to be encouraged too. Although, what I've found is that the 100M fiber lines are actually split among multiple people- usually if the price is below $60US the line will be split among 30 people or so, so speeds aren't that great anyway (from what I've heard a dedicated 100M line would be over $100 per month).
However, if you and your 10,000 closest friends end up with copies of the artists song and the artist ends up with ZERO, NADA, begging for food on the street corner when they should have rightfully had at least a few grand then something bad happened and all your weasel wording won't hide that fact.
Depending on where you are, you could pay for the song and the artist could STILL end up with no money (I live in China- commercial piracy is everyhwhere). Of course the legit music selection leaves a lot to be desired (I look for J-Pop but I can only find the really big names in China- Ayu, BoA, etc...) and Japanese CDs are so expensive, so I buy the CDs off of street satands, just like I buy my J-Drama off of the street stands (like hell I'll pay $200 for a boxset of 11 episodes without English or Chinese subtitles)
You sure? I'm pulling up my "Internet Counselor" tool (it's a price comparison tool for Japanese ISPs- it came with my VAIO) nd it says that Yahoo has an 8MB line for what you're paying now, and So-net has only a 1MB line for what you're paying now (but So-net is run by Sony- you wouldn't go to them anyway given recent events, right?). Of course, for $40 US you can get a 40M ADSL line with 1M upload which also comes with an unlimited wireless data plan that runs at about 64-400K (speed varies depending on location and wireless card) which is a pretty good deal. Pity I'm not in Japan anymore- I'll probably move there to teach or as an exchange student.
but, well, everyone is doing that ANYWAY
Lucky you- my school is full of students with PSPs, staff members with PSPs, faculty members with PSPs, even a couple of staff members with 2 PSPs. Lots of those people played DSes for a couple of weeks, then went on playing their PSPs. I'm the only person in school with a DS (still in use- I asked one classmate about the DS he was using on a school trip last year, and he said that he never used it since then) and even the teachers taunt me about it. I'll be OK, I suppose, but it just shows that non-Americans buy lots more PSPs than Americans do (lots of stores in the electronics market in downtown only sell PSPs, or they keep their DS stuff low-key, because "no one buys them anyway" according to one, but NDSBBS.com is a prime example of how the DS community in China is- a bunch of "less-than-ethical" people who download pirated ROMs to play on flash cartridges)- why me?
I think that a large part of their gray-market problem is actually in China. They don't officially sell the PSP here, so everyone imports. Of course, you pay a premium for a 1.5FW PSP (I've seen prices of over $300 for a PSP with 1.5 firmware) but the "downgradable" PSPs are a lot cheaper (those are priced a lot closer to their US price). There is a gray market for DS stuff, but that's because the Chinese DS will only play Chinese games (so I've been told). People who want to play Euro/US/Japanese games need a US/JP/Euro DS.
They don't "officially" sell the PSP in mainland China. I think HK is covered (note that I don't mention Taiwan) and it's possible to get it repaired at service centers on the mainland, though. All PSPs bought in mainland China are gray-market.
Exactly- Sony can't be allowed to do something like this. I currently live in mainland China- if one importer goes down there are a hundred more to choose from. But, I am actually a US citizen. What happens when I go back to the US? If I don't stand up for a situation other people are facing right now, even if it doesn't currently affect me, it will, eventually. I'll have to go back to America one day, and then I'll have to ask friends and family to help me import stuff. Who knows- soon customs may start searching people for signs of importing stuff and force them to leave it behind. This has to be stopped before it gets out of hand.
Yes, Euro PSPs and JP PSPs are exactly the same (right down to the 100-240V power adapter). Although possibly it's because the JP PSP isn't certified for Europe (for example, my VAIO bought from Japan has no FCC or European certification, only Japanese VCCI certification even though it's exactly the same as its US counterpart) because Sony didn't think about selling it outside Japan. It's sad that Lik-Sang can't sell PSPs in Europe anymore just because Sony made up some excuse (they profit a lot more off of Euro sales, I imagine). Most likely this will mean someone just goes to Japan, buys a bunch of PSPs(Wii/Xbox360/whatever), and sells them to his/her friends instead of ordering online.
Yes- that's how I got the TV show in the first place. But, it's in RealVideo, and the only non-RealVideo torrents are raw (no subs) which I can't understand (I'm trying to fix that though- I'm going to take Japanese classes when I get to college).
As far as I can tell it's only been music videos that have been removed. I discovered this one day when I was looking for the song "Fly High" (theme song to the drama show "CA to oyobi" -means something like "call me CA"-it's about a flight attendant and her attempt to find a boyfriend) and found that all the music videos for that song have been removed because they violated the terms of service. Now I go to Dailymotion because they have the music videos that Youtube removed.
In my case, that means buying from stands out on the street for $.60 per disc. I live in China- the J-pop sections of the music stores I've been to are either full of pirated CDs (see what I said in the first sentence) or they're dominated by Ayumi Hamasaki and BoA (still only $7 per disc though, but I have enough Ayu albums to last me at least a couple of years, even more with BoA, but I can barely find Ami Suzuki or Ai Otsuka- only like 3 or 4 albums from both of those, I guess because they're not as popular outside Japan).
They should really just try to host their video content in China and everything else in the US- Make Google Video and YouTube part of Google China and watch the RIAA/MPAA/JASRAC try to sue them. After all, Yahoo offers free MP3 music download in China (look at my sig) so Google can one-up them by offering TV shows.
I don't use AllofMP3 for a reason- they don't carry the music that I like to listen to. Unfortunately, I live in China- it's either face an extremely limited selection dominated by Ayumi Hamasaki and BoA if I buy legit or turn to commercial piracy if I want a CD. I turn to the file-sharing networks instead. Reason- I can also find a lot of old stuff by the artists that I listen to that no one sells anyway. That's my argument for file-sharing- open up all the artists' back catalog and open up international access (I'm after J-Pop, after all, not American music) then I'll turn to iTunes or something similar (probably Sony's mora service in Japan if what I want isn't on iTunes but they limit purchases to Japanese IP addresses).
Which OSes would be used? If they only allowed older versions of Windows they wouldn'tbe in anyone's good books (especially WinME) but if say... OSx86 worked with this (full compatibility, like without having to search a million websites just to get my keyboard, webcam, and wireless to work) then they could gain some respect.
I only watch J-Drama downloaded to my laptop (can't get subtitled versions of the shows I watch without RealVideo, though- argh!) because practically nothing on US/Chinese TV (I get local TV and satellite TV where I live) appeals to me. If I were living in Japan, then I would most likely watch 2 hours of TV or so per day. Depends, though- if the season brings nothing good, then I don't watch anything. If the season brings a good show (this year was good- "Attention Please" in the summer followed by "CA to oyobi" in the fall- both shows are about being a flight attendant, and yes, I know my tastes run quite strangely).
Right, but some of my favorite games are PSP-only (Densha de Go, Drum Master, Katamari). Without those games on my DS Lite I will always wait for the time when I can replace my broken PSP. I don't see a whole lot of sense here, though- all 3 games (well, Densha de Go is a series) could easily be ported (especially Drum Master, which would be better on the touch screen).
Exactly- they took away the Japanese music videos that I watched so often, and I went to Dailymotion(www.dailymotion.com) instead, which does have them.
Slashdot Mirror
Now I see what you mean. Of course, the Japanese practice of bundling a wireless (cellular) data plan with a wired broadband plan is something to be encouraged too. Although, what I've found is that the 100M fiber lines are actually split among multiple people- usually if the price is below $60US the line will be split among 30 people or so, so speeds aren't that great anyway (from what I've heard a dedicated 100M line would be over $100 per month).
However, if you and your 10,000 closest friends end up with copies of the artists song and the artist ends up with ZERO, NADA, begging for food on the street corner when they should have rightfully had at least a few grand then something bad happened and all your weasel wording won't hide that fact.
Depending on where you are, you could pay for the song and the artist could STILL end up with no money (I live in China- commercial piracy is everyhwhere). Of course the legit music selection leaves a lot to be desired (I look for J-Pop but I can only find the really big names in China- Ayu, BoA, etc...) and Japanese CDs are so expensive, so I buy the CDs off of street satands, just like I buy my J-Drama off of the street stands (like hell I'll pay $200 for a boxset of 11 episodes without English or Chinese subtitles)
You sure? I'm pulling up my "Internet Counselor" tool (it's a price comparison tool for Japanese ISPs- it came with my VAIO) nd it says that Yahoo has an 8MB line for what you're paying now, and So-net has only a 1MB line for what you're paying now (but So-net is run by Sony- you wouldn't go to them anyway given recent events, right?). Of course, for $40 US you can get a 40M ADSL line with 1M upload which also comes with an unlimited wireless data plan that runs at about 64-400K (speed varies depending on location and wireless card) which is a pretty good deal. Pity I'm not in Japan anymore- I'll probably move there to teach or as an exchange student.
They were all playing Japanese import games (when they did play- they treated the PSP mostly as an MP3/video player).
Not sure- but not a whole lot are actually playing games- it's either video or music (and web browsing).
but, well, everyone is doing that ANYWAY
Lucky you- my school is full of students with PSPs, staff members with PSPs, faculty members with PSPs, even a couple of staff members with 2 PSPs. Lots of those people played DSes for a couple of weeks, then went on playing their PSPs. I'm the only person in school with a DS (still in use- I asked one classmate about the DS he was using on a school trip last year, and he said that he never used it since then) and even the teachers taunt me about it. I'll be OK, I suppose, but it just shows that non-Americans buy lots more PSPs than Americans do (lots of stores in the electronics market in downtown only sell PSPs, or they keep their DS stuff low-key, because "no one buys them anyway" according to one, but NDSBBS.com is a prime example of how the DS community in China is- a bunch of "less-than-ethical" people who download pirated ROMs to play on flash cartridges)- why me?
I think that a large part of their gray-market problem is actually in China. They don't officially sell the PSP here, so everyone imports. Of course, you pay a premium for a 1.5FW PSP (I've seen prices of over $300 for a PSP with 1.5 firmware) but the "downgradable" PSPs are a lot cheaper (those are priced a lot closer to their US price). There is a gray market for DS stuff, but that's because the Chinese DS will only play Chinese games (so I've been told). People who want to play Euro/US/Japanese games need a US/JP/Euro DS.
They don't "officially" sell the PSP in mainland China. I think HK is covered (note that I don't mention Taiwan) and it's possible to get it repaired at service centers on the mainland, though. All PSPs bought in mainland China are gray-market.
Exactly- Sony can't be allowed to do something like this. I currently live in mainland China- if one importer goes down there are a hundred more to choose from. But, I am actually a US citizen. What happens when I go back to the US? If I don't stand up for a situation other people are facing right now, even if it doesn't currently affect me, it will, eventually. I'll have to go back to America one day, and then I'll have to ask friends and family to help me import stuff. Who knows- soon customs may start searching people for signs of importing stuff and force them to leave it behind. This has to be stopped before it gets out of hand.
I wouldn't mind (I want to import a car from Japan to drive in the US- just look at what they get that the rest of the world doesn't).
No. *I* mod your posts down. just not this one, obviously.
Yes, Euro PSPs and JP PSPs are exactly the same (right down to the 100-240V power adapter). Although possibly it's because the JP PSP isn't certified for Europe (for example, my VAIO bought from Japan has no FCC or European certification, only Japanese VCCI certification even though it's exactly the same as its US counterpart) because Sony didn't think about selling it outside Japan. It's sad that Lik-Sang can't sell PSPs in Europe anymore just because Sony made up some excuse (they profit a lot more off of Euro sales, I imagine). Most likely this will mean someone just goes to Japan, buys a bunch of PSPs(Wii/Xbox360/whatever), and sells them to his/her friends instead of ordering online.
Actually it's for promoting the act of "not pirating", not just for "not pirating" (as far as I can tell).
Yes- that's how I got the TV show in the first place. But, it's in RealVideo, and the only non-RealVideo torrents are raw (no subs) which I can't understand (I'm trying to fix that though- I'm going to take Japanese classes when I get to college).
As far as I can tell it's only been music videos that have been removed. I discovered this one day when I was looking for the song "Fly High" (theme song to the drama show "CA to oyobi" -means something like "call me CA"-it's about a flight attendant and her attempt to find a boyfriend) and found that all the music videos for that song have been removed because they violated the terms of service. Now I go to Dailymotion because they have the music videos that Youtube removed.
In my case, that means buying from stands out on the street for $.60 per disc. I live in China- the J-pop sections of the music stores I've been to are either full of pirated CDs (see what I said in the first sentence) or they're dominated by Ayumi Hamasaki and BoA (still only $7 per disc though, but I have enough Ayu albums to last me at least a couple of years, even more with BoA, but I can barely find Ami Suzuki or Ai Otsuka- only like 3 or 4 albums from both of those, I guess because they're not as popular outside Japan).
They should really just try to host their video content in China and everything else in the US- Make Google Video and YouTube part of Google China and watch the RIAA/MPAA/JASRAC try to sue them. After all, Yahoo offers free MP3 music download in China (look at my sig) so Google can one-up them by offering TV shows.
I wouldn't say that her greatest hits would be musical ones...
I don't use AllofMP3 for a reason- they don't carry the music that I like to listen to. Unfortunately, I live in China- it's either face an extremely limited selection dominated by Ayumi Hamasaki and BoA if I buy legit or turn to commercial piracy if I want a CD. I turn to the file-sharing networks instead. Reason- I can also find a lot of old stuff by the artists that I listen to that no one sells anyway. That's my argument for file-sharing- open up all the artists' back catalog and open up international access (I'm after J-Pop, after all, not American music) then I'll turn to iTunes or something similar (probably Sony's mora service in Japan if what I want isn't on iTunes but they limit purchases to Japanese IP addresses).
Which OSes would be used? If they only allowed older versions of Windows they wouldn'tbe in anyone's good books (especially WinME) but if say... OSx86 worked with this (full compatibility, like without having to search a million websites just to get my keyboard, webcam, and wireless to work) then they could gain some respect.
I only watch J-Drama downloaded to my laptop (can't get subtitled versions of the shows I watch without RealVideo, though- argh!) because practically nothing on US/Chinese TV (I get local TV and satellite TV where I live) appeals to me. If I were living in Japan, then I would most likely watch 2 hours of TV or so per day. Depends, though- if the season brings nothing good, then I don't watch anything. If the season brings a good show (this year was good- "Attention Please" in the summer followed by "CA to oyobi" in the fall- both shows are about being a flight attendant, and yes, I know my tastes run quite strangely).
I sorely miss my PSP for this reason.
Right, but some of my favorite games are PSP-only (Densha de Go, Drum Master, Katamari). Without those games on my DS Lite I will always wait for the time when I can replace my broken PSP. I don't see a whole lot of sense here, though- all 3 games (well, Densha de Go is a series) could easily be ported (especially Drum Master, which would be better on the touch screen).
No, I'm a foreigner living in China. Yes, they could do as you described, but then they'll have an international problem on their hands.
Exactly- they took away the Japanese music videos that I watched so often, and I went to Dailymotion(www.dailymotion.com) instead, which does have them.