Oversea Fan's troubles
July 01 2000: 
As you might know, I am a poor student who doesn't have cable (i.e: has no chance of seeing Laruku much less J-rock), therefore, I am kinda . ... not in touch with these sort of things. Videos are very expensive, I do try to save up, but I find it hard to catch up with the laruku things to get. Once they start coming out with CDs, there is a list of magazine to get (I don't get them all), and, then a live, a video, etc, maybe photobooks, or rerelease of old items. (I am happy they are releasing Light My Fire 2000 though!)

What can I say.. .?
*laugh* 
Well, *bounce* I love the internet. You can find lots of Laruku on the internet, therefore I like it.  Videos... .Of TV shows.. .even though, it takes a long time to upload to share to us (and piracy, but these minor rules are bent ^^;;; because, I don't believe in MP3s but I believe in videos, so there), but, the truth is that I appreciate this very much! 

regarding the piracy issue, I admire the Japanese fans for following the piracy rules. This from a foreigner's POV is that, well... I respect that alot. 

Honestly, to be frank, at the beginning , this page wasn't supposed to have a single laruku picture (cept for Tetchan's eye and the members' pages), but, since Mehri's help.. .

Firstly, it was because there were much better image galleries.

Secondly, I didn't really want to post up anything that isn't mine. I.E: image gallery isnt mine. ..still isn't *lol*^^ even if I edit the pictures a bit, it doesn't change much. The wall papers were different, because, more effort was put into those. 

Lastly, yeah... The piracy problem. 

The foreward is that.. .. 

No, I honestly doubt that Laruku will tell me to take this site down simply because of the pictures. The main problem is fans. The sad fact is that if your site doesn't have a proper image gallery, you don't get much traffic, unless you also include translations. I can't do much translation as I dont have _much_ to begin with (in terms of... my Japanese language and my ..stuff), and, I can't possibly provide a good image gallery that everyone else has. (I really appreciate the help tho ^^) I don't want to provide tabs/scores, as other sites have it, and also, I don't like to scan my only issue of GIGS until it breaks. I don't have pictures of rare items, and I don't have any good contacts to actually ask for help (such as fanclub, etc).

Although.. .the only good thing about this site is that it possibly has the most experimental pictures (lol) and, fanart. From statistics, no one ever views my thoughts, these are simply tabs that I keep on myself on laruku. From statistics, too, hardly ever anyone views the pictures of the wall papers, and even less people view the experimental pictures. An average of fanart is that.. . Well, all these effort is simply wasted.

Why do I still keep this site up.. .? eeto. ..*^^*;;; 

well, the truth is that, in Singapore, although it is widely believed that since it is asia it should have more laruku stuff, we dont have  much stuff.
Chronicles was banned, even if it would have been released here. (I love the government)
Videos can't be imported unless they are pop groups like Speed or Max (puke).. .and, Glay, which is pop-rock. but laruku.. .nooo.. .. GCT was available, in VCD format, but that was only because it was released here and it wasnt banned. -_-
Magazines are hard to get because the insane amount of fans whom I a) dont know, or b) dont like, grab it away. (actually, I haven't met a local laruku fan who totally clicks well with me^^;;;, not even online.==> I'm not a sicko, just some profound person who's a wee bit hentai) 
Photobooks are lesser of that problem, but the fact that the bookstores and music stores charge us a much-too-high price is a problem. Also, it's hard to get the older released stuff. Also, only if they're not out of print.
Products.. Forget it.
You cant even order CDs from the japanese bookstores here (unlike in US)! and the reliability rate of the bookstores. ..are.. .bad. The service at Kino sucks, and the reliability rate at Maruzen is practically zero. 

Grr.. .relatives.. .Oh, where was I?
Back to the point of piracy, I firmly believe that MP3s shouldn't be so freeflowing and recorded in high quality format. Even if it is freeflowing, it shouldn't be in such high quality. The negative effects I believe of human nature are more against than for. 
For videos, if it can't be gotten as an official release. ..I support bootlegs. Also, the videos can't possibly replace the real quality of the videos even if it is 40++MB MPEG files, so.. .. I am not against it.
Then, to big taiwan pirating companies as Ho Son and such... (excuse my politically incorrect form here) .. . UP YOURS!

Maybe I am gonna be seen as a hypocrite after I post this up.. .hmm. :-/ 
In other words, I am against piracy of music, not so much towards images (although I dislike movie pirates but its another topic).

Of course, for piracy of music, it's different cases for bootlegs. (eg: Laruku's demo, D'Arc~en~Ciel's works) But.. .
 
 

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