Documents Show How Roblox Planned To Bend To Chinese Censorship (vice.com) 28
Last year, Roblox launched a version of its game in China called LuoBuLeSi. Like other Western gaming companies that have entered the lucrative but heavily regulated Chinese market, it had to partner with a Chinese company, Tencent, who would operate the game in the country, and Roblox had to host user data on local servers, as required by law. But newly released internal documents reveal that Roblox assumed and prepared for the possibility that any Chinese partner it worked with could try to hack Roblox. From a report: On top of that, Roblox expected Tencent to copy the game and create its own version of it. "Expect that hacking has already started," one slide in a presentation from 2017, called "China MVP Ideas from Aug Trip; CONFIDENTAL," read. The slide dates from before Roblox ultimately announced a partnership with Tencent. "Expect it to ramp up after a deal is signed, possibly even by partner."
The documents also show the steps Roblox had to take in order for its game to comply with Chinese censorship laws: any maps created in the game had to "respect the integrity of the country and not misrepresent the Chinese territory," including by recognizing Beijing's claim of self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, according to a presentation given to Roblox by Tencent. Users and developers also "must not tamper with historical facts' and "must not appear any images or names of national leaders." There is no evidence that Tencent did target Roblox. The documents were originally obtained and then published online this month by a separate, criminal hacker who attempted to extort Roblox. Motherboard is publishing details from the documents despite them being obtained by a criminal hacker because of the overriding public interest in understanding the highly controversial steps major companies might take in order to break into markets in authoritarian countries. Roblox also expected a group of hundreds of people to be working on reverse engineering any code that the company placed on Chinese servers.
The documents also show the steps Roblox had to take in order for its game to comply with Chinese censorship laws: any maps created in the game had to "respect the integrity of the country and not misrepresent the Chinese territory," including by recognizing Beijing's claim of self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, according to a presentation given to Roblox by Tencent. Users and developers also "must not tamper with historical facts' and "must not appear any images or names of national leaders." There is no evidence that Tencent did target Roblox. The documents were originally obtained and then published online this month by a separate, criminal hacker who attempted to extort Roblox. Motherboard is publishing details from the documents despite them being obtained by a criminal hacker because of the overriding public interest in understanding the highly controversial steps major companies might take in order to break into markets in authoritarian countries. Roblox also expected a group of hundreds of people to be working on reverse engineering any code that the company placed on Chinese servers.
Smart (Score:5, Insightful)
Finally a company understands that the second you partner with a Chinese company, you're basically setting yourself up for "copy and eliminate".
And of course it has to be some game company that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things...
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You do know that copyright and trademarks exists? I mean, at least, outside of China?
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china's intellectual property and trademark laws are very similar to those in the us or europe. however, even in the us or europe, sorry if i burst any bubble, big fish will always eat small fish. because lawyers exist too, for a reason, and they are crazy expensive, for the same reason.
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Manufacturing in China has a lot of the most famous quote of War Games.
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Suppose the thing is that it seems more stupid for a company leadership to know they are opening themselves up to being eaten alive by outsourcing to China and then do it anyway.
The issue broadly with bending to Chinese censorship is when they bend globally to appease the China market specifically. If they censor inside China consistent with usual Chinese experience, fine, but frequently the companies in question change things globally, or produce it from the onset to be China-friendly to the detriment to
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From what I can tell, unlike the GDPR cookie popup thing, companies are smart enough to separate Chinese and international markets. I mean, you wouldn't want to release a game in Taiwan with a map of it colored the same as the mainland, or a game in Ukraine with Crimea not being a part of it. The smart thing to do is to avoid those sensitive issues completely because most of the time, your business has no business in international politics.
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They tend to sideskirt it by pretending controversial places don't exist in media franchises that want a foothold in China. The settings that may delve into real settings will conspicuously avoid settings that may run afoul of those rules.
They aren't going to make two multi-million dollar productions, one for China one for everyone else, or spend a lot of money trying to let the rest-of-world have theirs then a lot of money to retrofit it for China, they just make the original production China-friendly.
Furt
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Roblox is a Lego rip-off, so they can't really claim ownership of the concept.
They probably wouldn't be allowed to operate in China anyway, because child labour and exploitation is illegal. Some games companies have already got into trouble for targeting kids. Roblox's business model of having them develop the in-game content, usually as part of an exploitation racket run by someone outside the company so they don't have any legal liability in the West, is unlikely to fly there.
If you aren't familiar, Roblo
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Respecting territorial integrity (Score:2, Troll)
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Yes [taiwannews.com.tw] and yes [taiwannews.com.tw].
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The ROC claims to be the legitimate government of all of China (and until relatively recently, Mongolia as well). The country is called the Republic of China, Taiwan is just the name of the island that they currently control. There is no country called "Taiwan". If they took steps towards changing their constitution to become a separate country, the PRC would object strongly. There is one China, but two governments each claiming the other is illegitimate. This should have been sorted out in the '70s, b
Bend, not Comply. (Score:2)
Loaded language is loaded.
Bend ova (Score:1)
Soft gleetings! Want to do buiness in China? Please, tuln awound, bend ova, take it in the buttho! Yes! Yes! Good, velly good! Welcome to China. Nice doing buiness whizz you.
Wha with yoa patna? He no whanna bend ova??? Chinese people velly offended! How dae you insult Chinese people. This is entiely unnacepptaba! Leave now! Leave now an neva come back!
Corporations are such prison bitches. (Score:3)
I don't understand how human beings can be that weak and lacking in self-respect. Let alone ones who already have a lot of money, and the most enticing temptation dangled in front of them to betray their entire civilization is to get more of the same.
"Say, Mr. Hundred-Millionaire, I have a proposition: Contribute to the downfall of civilization, actively help us destroy the human spirit, and lick our buttholes vigorously, and we'll make sure you can own several Learjets, not just one!"
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Roblox doesn't have groundbreaking tech. What it has is community. If the parent company can make any money off of creating a similar community in China then it is better for them than not making any money.
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It is not rational to do business with someone you know will rob you of everything.