China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work

[Cail]

I don't know if this has been posted before, but I found it...rather interesting.. PS How do i spoiler stuff?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...et-gaming-scam

As a prisoner at the Jixi labour camp, Liu Dali would slog through tough days breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines of north-east China. By night, he would slay demons, battle goblins and cast spells.

Liu says he was one of scores of prisoners forced to play online games to build up credits that prison guards would then trade for real money. The 54-year-old, a former prison guard who was jailed for three years in 2004 for "illegally petitioning" the central government about corruption in his hometown, reckons the operation was even more lucrative than the physical labour that prisoners were also forced to do.

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

Memories from his detention at Jixi re-education-through-labour camp in Heilongjiang province from 2004 still haunt Liu. As well as backbreaking mining toil, he carved chopsticks and toothpicks out of planks of wood until his hands were raw and assembled car seat covers that the prison exported to South Korea and Japan. He was also made to memorise communist literature to pay off his debt to society.

But it was the forced online gaming that was the most surreal part of his imprisonment. The hard slog may have been virtual, but the punishment for falling behind was real.

"If I couldn't complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things," he said.

It is known as "gold farming", the practice of building up credits and online value through the monotonous repetition of basic tasks in online games such as World of Warcraft. The trade in virtual assets is very real, and outside the control of the games' makers. Millions of gamers around the world are prepared to pay real money for such online credits, which they can use to progress in the online games.

The trading of virtual currencies in multiplayer games has become so rampant in China that it is increasingly difficult to regulate. In April, the Sichuan provincial government in central China launched a court case against a gamer who stole credits online worth about 3000rmb.

The lack of regulations has meant that even prisoners can be exploited in this virtual world for profit.

According to figures from the China Internet Centre, nearly £1.2bn of make- believe currencies were traded in China in 2008 and the number of gamers who play to earn and trade credits are on the rise.

It is estimated that 80% of all gold farmers are in China and with the largest internet population in the world there are thought to be 100,000 full-time gold farmers in the country.

In 2009 the central government issued a directive defining how fictional currencies could be traded, making it illegal for businesses without licences to trade. But Liu, who was released from prison before 2009 believes that the practice of prisoners being forced to earn online currency in multiplayer games is still widespread.

"Many prisons across the north-east of China also forced inmates to play games. It must still be happening," he said.

"China is the factory of virtual goods," said Jin Ge, a researcher from the University of California San Diego who has been documenting the gold farming phenomenon in China. "You would see some exploitation where employers would make workers play 12 hours a day. They would have no rest through the year. These are not just problems for this industry but they are general social problems. The pay is better than what they would get for working in a factory. It's very different," said Jin.

"The buyers of virtual goods have mixed feelings … it saves them time buying online credits from China," said Jin.

The emergence of gold farming as a business in China – whether in prisons or sweatshops could raise new questions over the exporting of goods real or virtual from the country.

"Prison labour is still very widespread – it's just that goods travel a much more complex route to come to the US these days. And it is not illegal to export prison goods to Europe, said Nicole Kempton from the Laogai foundation, a Washington-based group which opposes the forced labour camp system in China.

[wop]

300 people working for 12 hours = £570

0.16pence an hour per person

[Kuya]

Sounds like something America should do. Get some juice out of them worthless prisoners clogging up the prisons and costing Americans their tax money.

[wop]

^ Or this

[tyven]

Sounds like something America should do. Get some juice out of them worthless prisoners clogging up the prisons and costing Americans their tax money.

I GIVE THIS MY FULL 100% SUPPORT. im suck of the nigs and spics and nazis just killing eachother

[BadKarma]

China? Being unfair and harsh? SAY IT AINT SO

[ronin sparthos]

We cant do this in America, we're too busy rehabilitating violent offenders.

[Tagus]

Haha... looks like all those real life analogies comparing rmt to rapists, thieves, and murderers weren't so far from the truth.

[vagus]

Someone go to Mexico and do this.

[Amastacia]

Whether it's state-sanctioned intellectual property theft, state-sanctioned counterfeiting, state-sanctioned EULA violation, or what have you, China does have quite the record of giving foreign companies the finger.

Maybe I'd be less bitter if companies like Huawei would stop ripping off my company, but I keep hoping that one day there'll be a massive riot in Beijing that matters worth a damn and overthrows the horrifically corrupt government over there.

Takes serious effort to make the US government look saintly, but China manages it handily.

[Acevalefor]

[ spoiler ]blah blah blah[ /spoiler ] without the spaces in the brackets.

[Kerberoz]

Sky is blue.

[notorious bum]

I just made some hella good fried rice. Don't you badmouth Mother China, bitch.

Also a big "ni hao" to all my homies locked up in the B, we had some good times when you was botting my Kotes and Enke's (long time) back in '05.

They fucked up though with the quota beatings though, atleast some of the slave labor in American prisons can be like regular shitty jobs.

[LinktheDeme]

I couldn't imagine blink tanking in dial up with a 166 mhz processor

[Plow]

I just made some hella good fried rice. Don't you badmouth Mother China, bitch.

Also a big "ni hao" to all my homies locked up in the B, we had some good times when you was botting my Kotes and Enke's (long time) back in '05.

They fucked up though with the quota beatings though, atleast some of the slave labor in American prisons can be like regular shitty jobs.

U.S. prisons have to pay you if you work. It's not college spo, er, slavery.

There's actually waiting lists for the chance to get the jobs, even the shitty ones.

[notorious bum]

That shit is still slave labor, you can dress it up all you like, call it modern-day slavery if it makes things easier.

[Plow]

That shit is still slave labor, you can dress it up all you like, call it modern-day slavery if it makes things easier.

In what way is it slave labor? They're not forced to do the work in any way, they have to volunteer to do it, and then wait for the chance, and then be quality workers (you know, not shank anyone) to keep the job. And they get paid...


It's one of the extremely few things we do even remotely right in our prisons...

[notorious bum]

Prisoners take up these slave jobs because they are told it will give them a better chance for when they are up for parole hearings. Which is a straight lie, even for those who are non-violent criminals(which accounts for what? 2/3 of the prison pop anyways). Federal safety and health standards do not protect prison labor, nor do the National Labor Relations Board policies. Corporations can charge whatever the fuck they want, 50cents/hr, maybe a dollar tops before the Prison takes their cut.

Most prisoners will be working for free at the end of the day, or maybe some extra meal-incentives in alot of cases. Sounds like slavery to me.

Also, the majority of these slave jobs are NOT basic bs jobs that the TV likes to show, they are manufacturing electronics, building shit for the govt., many of these jobs are skilled and companies would be paying $15-20/hr+ to fill these positions.

[vagus]

You make it sound like u get rights in China.

[notorious bum]

You make it sound like u get rights in Prison.

FTFY

China is a helluva country to beat when it comes to human rights violations, but we sure as hell give it our best shot lol