law

China to control online gaming

24
Jun
China-Internet-cops

China’s Ministry of Culture established new rules for online gamers. Chinese web users will have to register their names before playing games online.

New Chinese online gaming rules

The regulations also require online game companies to self-censor. According to the official China Daily, new online gaming reglementation will apply to all domestic and imported role-playing and social networking games (like Happy Farm on Kaixin001) from August 1.

With the new rules, online users who want to play a game will have register with a valid ID. Game providers will also be banned from offering unsuitable games to minors.

China's online gaming market is booming

China's online games sector is booming thanks to the growth of the country's web community, now the largest in the world. Chinese online population reached 400 million in the beginning of this year, and the number of young Internet addicts was estimated at around 24 million in 2009.

The measures aim to decrease soaring rates of Internet addiction in China, particularly among minors. IT research firm Analysys International predicts that by 2012, online gaming market will nearly triple from 2009 levels to about 73 billion yuan (approximatively 11 billion dollars), with more than 270 million players.

China already regulates the Internet

China filters out any information deemed politically sensitive or harmful. It results in the blockage of webstites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

This announcement comes after China's government recently defended Internet regulation and stated it would continue to block access to sensitive information on the Internet.

State media reported in May that authorities would also introduce a system requiring web users to provide their real names before posting comments online.

France doesn't Understand Search Engines

2
Apr

The goal of a search engine is to give the best answer to a search query in the minimum time. That is their reason TO BE, and AltaVista died because Google came with more ... accuracy. That’s it, that's the business.

Now, in the "assemblee nationale" the French most important chamber of representatives, they voted a new law which says "search engines have to give a better ranking to legal offers".
It's an attempt to decrease online music and movies piracy. i say an attempt, because of course, it cannot work, and here are SOME of the reasons why :

1) You are asking the search engines to change their... algorithm!  You touch the very essential, the core of what makes their glory or their doom. And of course, they won't change it to please the French parliament. if
They become less accurate, they lose customers, so they lose money...

2) Who will decide what to promote and what NOT to promote? the new HADOPI structure? the French government? on which objective element?
- Elysee (French president office):  hello Google, please give more importance to "la fnac" and less importance to "dailymotion" because la fnac has no copied content...
- Google guy : sure no problem mister president, do you want us to rank elysee.fr higher than whitehouse.gov for your convenience as well ... :o)

I just speak here of the SERP (search engine response pages) aspect, without talking of the many MANY other problems this law creates
 (by the way, wasn't it supposed to solve problems.... hum, anyways).