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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Muu_Puklip" data-source="post: 380156" data-attributes="member: 3241">Ryo, yep that was tried a year or two back.  They weren't helpful.  Joshawott, it's not the only way.  It would be helpful to the community overall if rightsholders pressured NEO to straighten up, but they aren't the only ones involved.  NEO's customers and wider fan community/consumers have at least as much influence.  At least they do if they get to know what has been going on.  Sorry for not being clear with my comments about Trading Standards.  The bit about websites was specific to my local council.  I don't know if other Trading Standards for other local councils are the same.  I do know that complaints about Tokyo Toys' behaviour online and at their retail store haven't had any real effect.  That's obvious enough because they are still selling counterfeits.Not everyone does know that it is an industry wide thing to have less than straight reviews or review scores.  I have talked to a fair few people over the years who were surprised to learn about it when I told them.  Knowing that NEO specifically has had less than straight reviewing and scoring practices can be helpful for understanding NEO's overall attitude and way of behaving towards the community it is being sold to.  Sharing guides on merchandise and how to avoid getting caught out is very helpful.  Fans helping other fans by sharing information.  Thank you for posting the links.chaos, the problem isn't just Tokyo Toys.  NEO's behaviour is itself a problem.  I'll recap and draw the parts together for you here.  NEO has a stated policy that they are against counterfeit goods and piracy the same as you do here. NEO have known for about two years or so that they have been carrying adverts for a company that sells counterfeits and that they needed to look into it.  At least some of the adverts themselves and other material in the mag has featured counterfeit goods.NEO have actively avoided investigating counterfeits in general, and the counterfeit goods that the companies they carry adverts for in particular sell despite many requests on the NEO forum for them to do so.  You might wonder how much use NEO's journalists are when they can't or won't find out what at least some of their own customers and forum members know.  As an aside, credit is due to Ian Wolf for taking that up with his employer/editor at MyM after (edit: My bad!) devilrules666's post on that subject in the MyM thread.     NEO are responsible for the contents of those adverts in the same way as you are for the content here.  You either care about the community you serve and won't carry ads for that kind of stuff or you don't.  It's not one standard for NEO and another one for you and AUKN.  You are straight and consistent about it, NEO are not.  NEO have not only carried the ads they have actively promoted that company in other ways, even in the face of complaints about it on their own forum. The reason that NEO has done all that is money and some kind of warped sense of loyalty to the wrong things.  They chose to continue taking those adverts from a company that sells counterfeits when they had the option to take adverts from other sources.  Sources that were perfectly legal and weren't selling counterfeits.  By promoting that company that sells counterfeit goods NEO have reduced the exposure of genuine sellers of legitimate anime and manga goods.  That is unhelpful to both legitimate sellers and to fans/customers.  Fans that haven't yet learned how to spot counterfeits are very likely to be misled into thinking that everything that company sells must be fine because NEO have adverts for them and have been actively promoting them. What I am doing is not "attacking" NEO, it is drawing attention to what UM/NEO has been doing by revealing or sharing what I know from having been a moderator and Admin on the NEO forum for years.  Call it whistleblowing if you like.  I am doing that so the community can be fully informed about what they are getting from NEO.  I tried for the last couple of years to get NEO to sort themselves out from within, but when it became obvious they never would I stepped down as Admin on the forum and then had one last go at getting them to do right by the community.  I/we (see the earlier post in the thread with the pastebin link) failed miserably.  So that just left the option of going fully public and blowing the whistle.  Hence this thread.</blockquote>

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