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North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

38north.org

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

#131

Post by godelski »

geraldwhen wrote: post #116
constantcrying wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Don’t outsource.

If this were codified into law I would suspect that it would quickly lead to monopolization. I can't imagine how the world would work without contractors. Imagine if Apple had to operate the mines, build the machines to mine the materials, to build the machines to build those machines, build the silicon foundry, and all the things along from dirt in the ground to the iPhone. Boy, you'd get nothing done. Because that's the world with no "outsourcing." It is too broad of a word.

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

#132

Post by anigbrowl »

godelski wrote: post #20

Seems like a difficult problem to solve. It shows the importance of paying close attention. NK has shown to be quite good at bypassing sanctions but it seems that the link is almost always through China. It would seem that the best way to go about this would be through stricter negotiations with them, since they are already acting as a significant intermediary. Either they know about this or the great firewall is not…

Edit: Interesting to see that this particular thread is getting heavy traffic and attacked.

It isn't, the spam is spread across multiple front page stories. There might be some IP address rotation but I'm not sure why it's allowed to get through when it would be so easy to filter.

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

#134

Post by iaaan »

constantcrying wrote: post #100

If you are outsourcing over the entire globe things like this tend to happen. There is very little you can actually do to verify how the work you require really gets done, especially if the format is purely digital and there is no physical process you could monitor. Companies building things in China have been caught in that trap multiple times and somewhere down the line the work was allegedly done by highly mistrea…

It's really easy though, actually, isn't it? Just don't toss problems over the fence to China. i.e. don't outsource things.

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

#135

Post by rangerelf »

karaterobot wrote: post #35

The HN headline is more clickbaitey than the original article, which has a different headline and goes out if its way to point out that Amazon and HBO are likely not the ones doing the outsourcing to North Korea. > There is no evidence to suggest that the companies identified in the images had any knowledge that a part of their project had been subcontracted to North Korean animators. In fact, as the editing comments…

It doesn't matter if it was intentional or not, the headline represents exactly what happened.

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

#139

Post by constantcrying »

godelski wrote: post #131
geraldwhen wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t outsource. If you outsource, have boots on the ground ensuring working conditions and no re outsourcing. Pick one. Pretty straightforward.

> Don’t outsource. If this were codified into law I would suspect that it would quickly lead to monopolization. I can't imagine how the world would work without contractors. Imagine if Apple had to operate the mines, build the machines to mine the materials, to build the machines to build those machines, build the silicon foundry, and all the things along from dirt in the ground to the iPhone. Boy, you'd get nothing…

Sure, having suppliers is completely inevitable for any company.

"We only do X" is one of the best tools to manage complexity.

I think what the other poster is referring to is specifically the practice of companies to have work done by workers in areas of the world where labor is cheap. That particular practice is something very different than e.g. buying chips from a foundry. Specifically buying parts from q supplier involves very little management, outsourcing work means you have to actively involved in the management of the offshore labor.

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

#140

Post by bcherry »

karaterobot wrote: post #35

The HN headline is more clickbaitey than the original article, which has a different headline and goes out if its way to point out that Amazon and HBO are likely not the ones doing the outsourcing to North Korea. > There is no evidence to suggest that the companies identified in the images had any knowledge that a part of their project had been subcontracted to North Korean animators. In fact, as the editing comments…

there's a difference between "click bait" (a misleading title specifically crafted to drive instinctual interest but which is not an accurate summation of the content) and titles accurately describing something truly interesting or surprising with more details inside. This is a case of the latter

(and whatever the opposite of "click bait" is, that's how I'd describe the original title!)

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