Gawker: valleywag, japan

Wired Ran Rehashed Article In Its Inaugural Issue

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:02:38 EDT

Wired magazine is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, with much reflection and self-congratulation. But one strange thing: in its very first issue in 1993, Wired ran an article that had already run under a different byline in a different magazine. A tipster provides evidence that an article in that issue about Japanese computer hackers by Karl Taro Greenfeld ran almost verbatim a year earlier—under a different byline—in Tokyo Journal. Furthermore, Greenfeld ran another article on the same subject in the LA Times Magazine, in which he describes one computer hacker identically to how he had described a different computer hacker in the Wired piece. Something seriously weird is going on here. [UPDATE: We now have a note from Karl Taro Greenfeld, saying that he is the author of all the pieces in question, and explaining the byline discrepancy, which is posted below. An explanation of what happened here—and key portions of all the stories in question—after the jump].

A note from Karl Taro Greenfeld:

I wrote all the articles. that story was actually written for Details but they killed it and then I sold it through my friend Chris Seymour to Tokyo Journal—I had once been the editor their and so there were numerous reasons why I didn't want to use my own name. Wired saw the story in Tokyo Journal and called Chris who told them to call me. Kevin Kelly, the wired managing editor at the time bougth the story from me and understood the whole situation. Even weirder, The Face ran a version that had both my name and Chris' name on it.

Summary of what happened, as far as we can tell: Greenfeld wrote the piece for Details. It was killed. He sold it to the Tokyo Journal (which he used to edit), which ran it under a different byline. Wired saw the story, liked it, bought it, and ran it under Greenfeld's byline, knowing the entire backstory. The different names given to the hackers in the LAT Magazine piece and the Wired piece hasn't been fully explained. So while we originally wondered if this was a plagiarism issue, it turns out to just be a case of a writer reselling his own work.

By Christopher Seymour, Tokyo Journal:

By Karl Taro Greenfeld, Wired:

Karl Taro Greenfeld's description of a hacker named "Kojack" in Wired:

Karl Taro Greenfeld's description of a hacker named "Snix" in the LA Times Magazine:

Bono gives away iPods to save Africa

Jordan Golson — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:00:10 EST

Bono gave a red iPod to the Japanese Prime Minister hoping to encourage more support from Japan to combat African poverty. Yasuo Fukuda asked Bono if his music was preloaded on the device. "No, but you can download it."

Handily for the PM, U2's music is available on the Japanese iTunes store. In November 2006, Bono gave then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a pair of his Armani Red campaign sunglasses for the same cause. (Photo by AP/Peter Dejong)

The American Kids Didn't Want It, Let's Try Japanese Women

Nick Douglas — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:37:33 EST

Disney is pitching a mobile phone service (Disney web sites, games, videos and ring tones on phones covered with the Mickey Mouse head) to Japanese women, says the WSJ, a year after the entertainment company shut down a similar U.S. service. More has changed than the target demographic; the new program gives more of the grunt work to carrier Softbank Mobile than Disney's failed partnership with Sprint. But Disney is also encouraged by its popularity among women over 20; the Journal notes that 75% of Disney sites' subscribers are this demographic, and that Tokyo Disney is popular for dates. What will the Japanese schoolgirls do to set themselves apart from their older sisters?

Incidentally, while the Journal reports that Tokyo Disney got almost 26 million visitors in 2006, half the attendance of Disney World, its Hong Kong park only earned 4 million visitors in its second year, down from 5 million. (This was noted with today's news that Disney may increase its share in the struggling park.) Apparently a day of Disney is less appealing when you work eighty hours sewing Lilo & Stitch decals.

Steve Jobs has two Japanese girlfriends

Jordan Golson — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:39:25 EST

Apple is in talks with Japan's top cell-phone company, NTT DoCoMo and with Softbank, the No. 3 carrier in the market. Reuters spoke to a source inside DoCoMo who said "the negotiations are not going smoothly, as Apple's conditions are extremely hard to meet." No surprise there. Apple likely wants similar terms to ones that AT&T and Deutsche Telekom agreed to: a cut of the subscription fees and a hefty markup on the iPhone itself. Apple had similar negotiations in other countries, in which Jobs infamously referred to prospective partners as "girlfriends." One of these companies will end up married to the iPhone, likely for the price that Apple quotes. When it comes to for-richer-or-for-poorer, Apple usually picks "for richer." (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

Industry news: Google's News

Nick Douglas — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 10:50:27 EST

Today's top deal: Google will start selling ads for over 50 newspapers. [NY Times]
MySpace goes to Japan, rejects our suggested name (2 MySpace: Tokyo Drift). [CNet]
The National Federation of the Blind is suing Target for not making its website accessible to the blind, in a case that decides whether Web sites must be accessible just like physical stores. [NY Times]
Technorati chief Dave Sifry explains how some of his blog search engine's ranking systems work in his quarterly report on the State of the Blogosphere, [Technorati]
While publisher Tim O'Reilly maps out the subjects that sell well in his State of the Computer Book Market report. [O'Reilly Radar]

Hard Gay at Yahoo translated

ndouglas — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 21:41:30 EDT

This is what fansubs were made for: Japanese leather-daddy Hard Gay took a trip to Yahoo! Japan last year, trying to nab a spot as their spokesperson. But until now, it was only available in Japanese. (Granted, that means half of the Valley could already understand it.) Now HG's fan club has posted a version with English subtitles. Enjoy!

Hard Gay at Yahoo! with English subtitles [YouTube]