"DLSite just deleted the 'petite' tag and blocked off access from overseas " - X (Twitter)

[GreyJumper]

May as well ask I take it using points to buy a region lock content won't be a issue for now?

 

[smnb]

Credit card companies should focus on real porn companies. You know, the industry with actual claims of human trafficking and victims?

Or they could just stick to their primary purpose and focus on payments and stuff. You know, if subject A wants to pay subject B, then do it. And that's it, the happy end. Leave the whole morality police job to someone else.

 

[silvermistshadow]

Why that one specifically? Did it just happen to be the first one you found?
It doesn't seem like the best product:

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Proton VPN is a well known and solid free option.
Here's a link that skips past the "Are you sure you don't want the Premium version?" stuff:

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ProtonVPN also doesn't let you pick what country to VPN to unless you pay, so that doesn't really help much.

 

[Icarus Media]

ProtonVPN also doesn't let you pick what country to VPN to unless you pay, so that doesn't really help much.

Has that changed? Because I have that and it allows US, Japan and Netherlands as free.

 

[RosesInBlue]

ProtonVPN also doesn't let you pick what country to VPN to unless you pay, so that doesn't really help much.

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[blulaz]

Any lists what country is unaffected? Or at least, can someone at least told me few countries without any restrictions?
I have a VPN, but there's no Japan option, so I'm trying to find alternative countries to use.

 

[Soobaroo]

Any lists what country is unaffected? Or at least, can someone at least told me few countries without any restrictions?
I have a VPN, but there's no Japan option, so I'm trying to find alternative countries to use.

I'm afraid only Japan is unaffected, unless someone managed to get access to DLsite's backend and check there...

Are you using free Proton VPN? If so, try Urban Shield add-on linked earlier in the thread and disable it after you've finished browsing DLsite if you're concerned about your privacy. It has Japanese proxy and it worked decently for me.

 

[ButterKnight321]

Late to the party (funeral), but this whole situations blows big time. I was willing to put up with the points system since it meant you could buy anything unrestricted. I don't think DLS bending the knee to CC companies will help them as much as they think it will. Especially since it already has a small market in the west, and now they'll be restricting the content potential customers have access to. Does anyone know if using a VPN allows you to purchase content, or if all you can do is view the page? I'd like to purchase content I enjoy and support the devs if possible.

 

[teraexbf]

Late to the party (funeral), but this whole situations blows big time. I was willing to put up with the points system since it meant you could buy anything unrestricted. I don't think DLS bending the knee to CC companies will help them as much as they think it will. Especially since it already has a small market in the west, and now they'll be restricting the content potential customers have access to. Does anyone know if using a VPN allows you to purchase content, or if all you can do is view the page? I'd like to purchase content I enjoy and support the devs if possible.

Supporting the devs is also possible through their Ci-en creators page btw, it is not region locked. Just pirate the game and if you like it you can support them later.

 

[sonlun96]

Supporting the devs is also possible through their Ci-en creators page btw, it is not region locked. Just pirate the game and if you like it you can support them later.

the real pain is you have to activate VPN to "see" the products, but I think anyone who has the effort to go through hoops to spend on DLsite would already know it. It just sucks not knowing your favorite creator put on a new work unless you follow them in different media, and so missing the golden time (featured sale). Even worse when a work has limited time bonus (ASMR for example).

 

[ButterKnight321]

This whole thing will most likely influence official translations too. I feel like over the last 1-2 years we were getting a decent amount of content with official translations. Sure, some of them were shoddy AI translations, but there were some high quality translations in the mix too. Some developers even went as far as teaming up with foreign publishers to provide uncensored and translated versions of their game. Between DLSite bending the knee, and Japanese banks supposedly blocking foreign Steam transactions (did that actually happen?)-- I seriously think this will discourage JP devs from seeking an audience outside of Japan. Which would be a negative for foreign consumers AND DLSite.

 

[YuckYuck220]

This whole thing will most likely influence official translations too. I feel like over the last 1-2 years we were getting a decent amount of content with official translations. Sure, some of them were shoddy AI translations, but there were some high quality translations in the mix too. Some developers even went as far as teaming up with foreign publishers to provide uncensored and translated versions of their game. Between DLSite bending the knee, and Japanese banks supposedly blocking foreign Steam transactions (did that actually happen?)-- I seriously think this will discourage JP devs from seeking an audience outside of Japan. Which would be a negative for foreign consumers AND DLSite.

We're definitely going to see a lot less officially translated works with these rules in place. This is why it's important for sites like this to exist where the community can translate it themselves and share it (if they're willing, there's a lot of translation requests that will never be fulfilled).

If you consume a lot of Japanese media, it would not be a terrible idea to put some effort into the next 4 years learning the language. It's not just eroge that gets censored, I've seen literal pages of text in light novels being removed in official translations due to censorship, Mushoku Tensei is one that comes to mind. Official english dubs/subtitles are often cringe and shit in anime+manga due to these "localizers" intentionally changing text and replacing it with their own because they don't like the messaging of the content. Fan translations are a good way to circumvent cases like this but you can't always rely on them.

If you're willing to learn the language you'll be rewarded with the true unfiltered intentions of the creators works that you are consuming.

 

[entomology1233]

Or they could just stick to their primary purpose and focus on payments and stuff. You know, if subject A wants to pay subject B, then do it. And that's it, the happy end. Leave the whole morality police job to someone else.

I agree. I just failed to make my point. Which is that when companies try to censor something, it brings a spotlight to what they DONT censor, in a sense, they are basically saying "Oh, drawn girls are bad, but an industry with actual trafficking is okay."

 

[ButterKnight321]

It looks like DLSite got bought by some company called viviON, and there's some big changes to how they're going to handle private information and use of service. There's some jargon about using viviON ID and connection to other viviON services. I don't know if this is related to the recent changes or if this just coincidental timing. I'm also not sure how this is going to affect users outside of Japan since most of their sevices seem to be japanese exclusive. I think the DLSite specific terms are unchanged, but I'm not 100% sure.

 

[RosesInBlue]

It looks like DLSite got bought by some company called viviON, and there's some big changes to how they're going to handle private information and use of service. There's some jargon about using viviON ID and connection to other viviON services. I don't know if this is related to the recent changes or if this just coincidental timing. I'm also not sure how this is going to affect users outside of Japan since most of their sevices seem to be japanese exclusive. I think the DLSite specific terms are unchanged, but I'm not 100% sure.

I don't think you understand how these corporate dynamics function.
DLSite has been a subsidiary of the GEO Holdings Corporation since 2010. viviON is a business owned by the GEO Group started in 2021 to handle digital content produced and distributed under them. Basically, the viviON Group is the management structure of the digital storefronts and services owned by GEO. DLSite has been part of that structure since 2021.
Nothing is changing except the group responsible for management of accounts.

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[dokodesuka]

I sent an email to DLSite asking them to make the games visible again etc. The response was this (original was in English):

2025/4/14 14:17 Thank you for your inquiry. Please be aware that certain items on our website are not accessible from specific countries and regions. We are not at liberty to disclose the reason/s for such restrictions, nor the specific countries / regions and items which the restrictions apply to. Thus, even if you contact us regarding this matter, we cannot provide you with an answer. We ask for your understanding of the circumstances pertaining to this matter and apologize for any inconvenience this may be. We also hope that you nonetheless continue to enjoy shopping with us. If by chance you need assistance with any other matter, please feel free to reply to this email and let us know. Sincerely yours DLsite English Customer Support

I don't like it when information is kept from you. Why do this? Who's benefitting from this, why would they ask for secrecy?

It was ultimately deemed to not be unconstitutional

This double negative is difficult for me to understand. Are you saying that it's illegal to possess any sort of loli cartoon while in Texas, even if it's clearly a drawing and not a picture of a real person?

 

[RosesInBlue]

This double negative is difficult for me to understand.

Obscenity law restricting depictions of fictional minors is constitutionally sound.
In practice, obscenity in the US is governed by community consensus as per the Miller test. If the average person within the jurisdiction in current day would find it to be meant to sexually arouse, while offensively depicting sexual conduct and lacking serious public benefit; then it's obscene and not protected by the First Amendment.

In Texas after the passing of SB 20, obscene visuals made with computer software depicting a person who looks like or is described as a minor is illegal to posses or promote.

 

[RosesInBlue]

In contrast, Swedish law with precedent prohibits such depictions only if the court can reasonably suspect an actual child was involved in its creation, such as being used as reference.
Don't fall for US propagandist memes and slogans. It's not actually the land of the free and it does not have the foremost legal protections of expression.

 

[yonlim]

Used a VPN (connected to Japan) and I can see the games but I can't enter any of the tags including msgk, etc. Anyone have any idea how to access the tags?

 

[dokodesuka]

Used a VPN (connected to Japan) and I can see the games but I can't enter any of the tags including msgk, etc. Anyone have any idea how to access the tags?

I haven't yet had a chance to test a JP VPN on dlsite, but what happens if you click the tag link within any game page, does it take you to that tag search?
Also, here's the English list of genre tags:

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In the JP version of that page (just remove the ?locale=... part), some terms were missing, like "tsurupeta" / ツルペタ (the euphemism for flat chest / l*licon).