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North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

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Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#111

Post by zdw »

karaterobot wrote: post #98
exhilaration wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's the most interesting part of the article - that Amazon and HBO projects are being worked on by NORTH KOREAN workers!!! I totally agree with the HN headline and I'm glad it got me to click and read the entire article.

If the headline is factually wrong, it doesn't matter whether you agree with it or not.

Original title "buried the lede" and was too long for HN, so I edited it.

It may be useful to see how others linked to this news - the original place I found this was at Engadget, which had this title: "Some Amazon and Max cartoons may have been partially animated in North Korea" https://www.engadget.com/some-amazon-and-max-cartoons-may-ha...

Which linked to Reuters: "North Koreans may have helped create Western cartoons, report says" : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-koreans-may...

I linked the original report, which makes no mention of animation, but is the obvious focus of the article. The point isn't who did the outsourcing, but what was done, IMO.

The length limit on HN titles sometimes makes nuance difficult - maybe I should have added "may have been outsourced" instead. I was not going for clickbait/misrepresentation.

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#112

Post by hobs »

beaeglebeachh wrote: post #47
peppertree wrote: post #10

The real question is does North Korean let their animators work remote in a LOCL area.

Honestly if N Korea had a cheap/low-barrier remote visa it might be attractive. I would imagine having an oppressive authoritarian regime looking at you as a prime tax slave might mean none of the prols would risk getting their head chopped off to mess with you. Meanwhile labor/rent/food gotta be hella cheap.

Most North Koreans face starvation on a regular basis, and being excited about the prospect of having a cowed population that serves you is either sociopathic or psychopathic, or both. Seek some help.

All of that being said that when those in power think you made a single mistake, you're dead.

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#113

Post by gruez »

yunohn wrote: post #96
geraldwhen wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Outsourcing and then claiming ignorance is not a defense against financing North Korea.

Apple does this too - they set wildly low payable rates and then get surprised when Foxconn grinds their workers to dust.

What makes you think that if apple paid "fair" prices, that it won't get siphoned off to pay management/shareholders?

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#114

Post by godelski »

icepat wrote: post #95
Arrath wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair its not only this thread.

The dodgy AI product spam attacks have been escalating recently, or so I've noticed. I don't think I've seen this with any other product class here.

I think I've only seen it once before and that too was on a politically contentious thread. Definitely is rare and I don't blame anyone for being suspicious given that the spam started quite quickly after this post was created (and how all comments got initially downvoted). Who is definitely within question, but without a doubt the HN sight is under attack and is getting significant traffic that is slowing it down.

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#115

Post by beaeglebeachh »

10000truths wrote: post #94
colechristensen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire chain all the way down is sanctioned, the US can and will climb up and down that chain to punish sanctions violations. A company like Disney will have to have a Sanctions Compliance Program and like any other compliance regime, there are standards, external auditors, etc. to make sure enough is being done, and "enough" can be a bit of a moving target. If you get caught having sanctioned suppliers, those st…

> How guilty you are is a function of how good a job the state department thinks you're doing trying to avoid sanctions violations. Is the standard for this codified in clear language anywhere, or is it merely based on the whims of some federal prosecutor/judge? If I make digital watches, and I buy coin cell batteries from a supplier who buys battery precursors from a supplier who buys LiCoO2 from a manufacturer who…

Feds have 99+% conviction rate and infinite money and time, meanwhile you sit in cage and deal with frozen accounts while trying to pay your attorney. They imprisoned weev for doing arithmetic on wget'ing a public website.

Worst sin is angering the gods. I would imagine most the time theyll probably just ask nicely for you to stop, then bury you if you don't, but for political or convenient targets they seem fine going straight for the throat.

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#116

Post by geraldwhen »

constantcrying wrote: post #104
geraldwhen wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Outsourcing and then claiming ignorance is not a defense against financing North Korea.

It is a defense. Even in a court of law not knowing about something can potentially protect you from punishment. It is just a part of the nature of outsourcing. Your supplier might just choose to outsource himself and have the work done by companies you couldn't possibly work with. For a digital good this is extremely hard to monitor. How would a Californian studio possibly know what company their supplier outsources…

Don’t outsource.

If you outsource, have boots on the ground ensuring working conditions and no re outsourcing.

Pick one. Pretty straightforward.

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#117

Post by blackhawkC17 »

10000truths wrote: post #94
colechristensen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire chain all the way down is sanctioned, the US can and will climb up and down that chain to punish sanctions violations. A company like Disney will have to have a Sanctions Compliance Program and like any other compliance regime, there are standards, external auditors, etc. to make sure enough is being done, and "enough" can be a bit of a moving target. If you get caught having sanctioned suppliers, those st…

> How guilty you are is a function of how good a job the state department thinks you're doing trying to avoid sanctions violations. Is the standard for this codified in clear language anywhere, or is it merely based on the whims of some federal prosecutor/judge? If I make digital watches, and I buy coin cell batteries from a supplier who buys battery precursors from a supplier who buys LiCoO2 from a manufacturer who…

More based on the whims of a prosecutor. Many small companies violate sanctions (usually unknowingly) and don't get prosecuted. But stick out too much, and you'll likely get hammered.

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#119

Post by pvg »

godelski wrote: post #110
pvg wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is a signifier that makes it easier for dang to visually see his name It isn't. That's been explained in many threads of his comments, I feel reasonably sure some as previous replies to you.

> It isn't. Well __I__ can visually distinguish a username more easily with @ in front of it. Just the same way as I, and many others, use various typographical marks to indicate various things. It does also make a *manual* thread search easier. I feel reasonably confident that the vast majority of people doing this are not expecting @dang to be pinged, but are just using it either due to habit and/or a visual indica…

It's not that big of a deal, the main problem with it is people assume this is actually a way to get moderator attention for something. It's great that you don't but plenty of users don't know that nor are they aware of the reliable method of emailing hn@ycombinator.com.

The other, probably more important reason not to do it is that it gums up threads with pointless meta which runs against the site conventions. If a comment starts with @dang, it probably doesn't belong in the thread. Just like that meeting, it could have been an email.

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#120

Post by krisoft »

beaeglebeachh wrote: post #47
peppertree wrote: post #10

The real question is does North Korean let their animators work remote in a LOCL area.

Honestly if N Korea had a cheap/low-barrier remote visa it might be attractive. I would imagine having an oppressive authoritarian regime looking at you as a prime tax slave might mean none of the prols would risk getting their head chopped off to mess with you. Meanwhile labor/rent/food gotta be hella cheap.

Hard to look at the Otto Warmbier story and say “hey, you know what? I wish i could also be there”
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