To quote the grand old Smiths: “Is it really so strange?”

Canadian researchers uncovered software residing on Chinese internet servers that is purportedly being used to “seek out and hold online text-based chats deemed to contain politically sensitive communications.”

Described as little more than a “flaw” in the TOM Online system by Skype spokeswoman Jennifer Caukin, who went on to say Skype was “very concerned to hear about the apparent security issue,” TOM Online was apparently quick to address the glitch after Skype alerted the China-based company, reports the Wall Street Journal.

While the report did not venture a connection between the security hole and the Chinese government, it revealed the discovery of an encryption key that could well have been used to easily decrypt and access personal user records, which included data on mobile phone accounts, mobile phone text messages, and Skype-TOM Online user information.

Home Media Magazine takes a look at the turnout from various anime purveyors at this weekend’s Anime Expo…and the signs ain’t good…

On the convention floor, the booth for leading anime DVD distributor ADV Films looked like a mom-and-pop DVD sidewalk store, with no signage and no representatives from the company.

“I just work here,” a young man selling DVDs said. “I can’t tell you anything.”

While ADV’s set-up was bare bones, anime powerhouse VIZ Media wasn’t on the show floor at all. Neither was The Right Stuf International. All three companies held panels to discuss their plans for the rest of the year and beyond, but their absence from the show floor was reflective of the slow-down of domestic anime DVD.

“You can see the decline in the industry,” said Adam Sheehan, senior events manager for Funimation. “A lot of the companies in the past were pushing every title as an ‘A’-list title, and it was too much for the market to handle.”

Of course, it’s nothing people inside and outside the industry haven’t been saying for the last year or so. Anime - in the U.S., at least, is hurtin’ - even when its’ popularity is at an all-time high. If you want my opinion (and I’m by no means an expert), what we’re seeing is a rough patch which represents the transition to new forms of distribution. While DVD was undoubtedly a gold-mine for companies looking to bring Japanese animation Stateside, it’s abundantly clear that the future of anime in the U.S. is online. A significant number of anime distributors have begun initiatives to push their product via the internet, and I predict the trend will continue into the forseeable future, at least for those with the vision and determination to stick it out.

The OG (that’s ‘Original Gangsta’ for those not acquainted with urban patois) Shaolin Temple in China has launched an online outlet where fans can drop their hard-earned loot on a wide array of Shaolin goodies. The site, located at www.taobao.com, doesn’t look very Shaolin (let’s just say austerity is not the site’s prime design imperative) so I can see why some Chinese are a little peeved.

“Shaolin temple is getting less and less likeable,” one Internet user wrote in an essay posted on news site ifeng.com on Wednesday. “There’s a giant laughing buddha in Shaolin temple. If it saw what the temple is doing these days, I’m not so sure it would still be laughing.”

I have to say it seems a little on the chintzy side to me, too. Why don’t they go into something respectable, like gold farming?