Gackpoid Guidelines

[koshien.livejournal.com]

Apparently there are now official guidelines on how and what you can do with the Gackpoid and it's related character.

Non-commercial use should not produce immoral material
A special license is required for "commercial works, solid or three-dimensional representations, or costumes"

I'm sure that most people would not pay out all that money just to program Gackt's voice saying unsavoury or immoral things or it's lovely purple haired character. However, due to the fiasco with the Crypton adventure games (does anyone remember that?) which was related to the first major Vocaloid release, it looks like they are taking no chances and publishing guidelines before the release date of Gackpoid. I'm thinking this is the main reason for the delay and not (just) package design issues.

A fairly concise writeup about the news can be found here at the A.N.N site

(1000 apologies for missing intro post - I was starting it and posted this instead)

Comments

[tanfouk.livejournal.com]

The company is going to have to get specific about "immoral material." I've been to Japan and seen guys openly reading porn on the subways, as well as some alarming products in shop windows. So what is immoral in one of the two countries (Russia being the other) where it is legal to own child pornography? I'm not being holier-than-thou, I just don't understand where they're coming from.

[koshien.livejournal.com]

Immoral means different things for different people, indeed. You certainly don't sound "holier than thou" simply because you make a very valid point. I think as usual with the wording of these things, the publishers tend not to be specific so that any use of the product will have the user "questioning" their purposes and err on the side of caution "just in case".

[lilyginnyblack.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information. I don't remember the whole Crypton adventure game fiasco, but I can see how these guidelines were probably one of the reasons for the delay. And, as the two post above mine help show, this brings up the very interesting topic of "immoral material" and what that means to each country, culture, and person.

[tanfouk.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of the legality of child porn in Japan until recently, when I saw a NHK program on the topic. There wasn't anything on how sexual abuse affects children physically or psychologically, but there was a lot of discussion of how embarrassed the survivors would be if others learned it was them in the pictures! So that is a profound cultural difference.
To bring the topic back to Gackt, I've always been pleased that he doesn't seem to have any interest in sailor-suited school girls or other nymphettes- except for embarrassing You by getting him to dress up as one!

[koshien.livejournal.com]

Yes profound difference, maybe due to the cultural pressure of "keeping things inside" and not alerting to danger due to personal embarrassment. Like if a woman is touched below her waist by a pervert on a train, it's expected for the victim act as if nothing has happened. It's also not helpful that it's not illegal to possess even the most obscene material unlike most countries.

Oh sailor suit Gackt was truly hilarious.

[lilyginnyblack.livejournal.com]

LOL! xD I know, I've always been pleased with Gackt about that too. ^^ Because, as much as I find Japanese culture to be interesting, and as much as I like certain aspects of it...those odd fetishes are not one of them...>.>