Comments on: 35-year-old plaintiff to force 2ch founder Hiroyuki into bankruptcy! http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/01/16/35-year-old-plaintiff-to-force-2ch-founder-hiroyuki-into-bankruptcy/ Photos, Stories and articles on East Asia Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:53:25 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Mutantfrog http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/01/16/35-year-old-plaintiff-to-force-2ch-founder-hiroyuki-into-bankruptcy/comment-page-1/#comment-107282 Mutantfrog Wed, 17 Jan 2007 06:07:12 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/01/16/35-year-old-plaintiff-to-force-2ch-founder-hiroyuki-into-bankruptcy/#comment-107282 Alexa statistics are notoriously questionable, considering they are based on a voluntarily installed client program. And since Alexa is mainly in English, I think it is safe to assume their statistics in foreign languages are less reliable. On the other hand, we don't have any BETTER source of impartial web stats. Alexa statistics are notoriously questionable, considering they are based on a voluntarily installed client program. And since Alexa is mainly in English, I think it is safe to assume their statistics in foreign languages are less reliable. On the other hand, we don’t have any BETTER source of impartial web stats.

]]> By: Joe http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/01/16/35-year-old-plaintiff-to-force-2ch-founder-hiroyuki-into-bankruptcy/comment-page-1/#comment-106713 Joe Tue, 16 Jan 2007 16:51:47 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/01/16/35-year-old-plaintiff-to-force-2ch-founder-hiroyuki-into-bankruptcy/#comment-106713 Note also that 2ch is not at the height of its popularity right now: in fact it's at a 5-year popularity low, as <a href="http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?site0=2ch.net&site1=&site2=&site3=&site4=&y=p&z=1&h=400&w=700&range=max&size=Large&url=2ch.net" rel="nofollow">Alexa statistics show</a>... Note also that 2ch is not at the height of its popularity right now: in fact it’s at a 5-year popularity low, as Alexa statistics show...

]]> By: Joe http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/01/16/35-year-old-plaintiff-to-force-2ch-founder-hiroyuki-into-bankruptcy/comment-page-1/#comment-106424 Joe Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:27:32 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/01/16/35-year-old-plaintiff-to-force-2ch-founder-hiroyuki-into-bankruptcy/#comment-106424 The big advantage of bankruptcy seems to be that criminal charges are available if Hiroyuki doesn't cooperate. That's the real problem being showcased by these lawsuits: for a garden-variety tort or contract case, Japanese courts have no power to order the defendant to do anything. Also interesting to note that <a href="http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070116p2a00m0na002000c.html" rel="nofollow">one dude is pressing charges against a 2ch poster</a> under Japan's criminal libel statute. (Hat tip to <a href="http://www.debito.org/index.php/?p=166" rel="nofollow">Debito's blog</a> for that one.) Now the police may have a better excuse to stick their nose into 2ch and Hiroyuki's affairs. Important to note: Hiroyuki doesn't actually own the servers (as far as anyone can tell). The biggest risk I can foresee would be if he couldn't pay the hosting bills any more, which would take 2ch offline assuming the hosting company didn't want to provide all that bandwidth for free. But I could imagine some company <em>buying</em> 2ch to capitalize on that huge userbase... The big advantage of bankruptcy seems to be that criminal charges are available if Hiroyuki doesn’t cooperate. That’s the real problem being showcased by these lawsuits: for a garden-variety tort or contract case, Japanese courts have no power to order the defendant to do anything.

Also interesting to note that one dude is pressing charges against a 2ch poster under Japan’s criminal libel statute. (Hat tip to Debito’s blog for that one.) Now the police may have a better excuse to stick their nose into 2ch and Hiroyuki’s affairs.

Important to note: Hiroyuki doesn’t actually own the servers (as far as anyone can tell). The biggest risk I can foresee would be if he couldn’t pay the hosting bills any more, which would take 2ch offline assuming the hosting company didn’t want to provide all that bandwidth for free.

But I could imagine some company buying 2ch to capitalize on that huge userbase…

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