Ben Miller

QRcodes are the dominant mobile-phone barcode in Japan. Today, I heard an interesting story from a guy in the industry. He told me that in Kabukicho (Tokyo's largest redlight district) touts are having the QRcodes for their establishments (porn, prostitution) printed on to adhesive labels. They take their stickers and overlay them on other QRcodes. It must be a tricky decision. If you cover up the QRcode on the advertisement of a completely rival establishment, you probably risk a beating. On the other hand, if you overlay it on something that appeals to a different demographic, it would be a waste of time and labels. It could, of course, lead to apocryphal stories of shocked little old ladies who thought they were inputting directions to the local senior citizens' center but got something they wish they hadn't.

Maybe the developers of http://goatsepeg.com/ -- wikipedia for "goatse," if you don't get the reference; No, not you mom! you go here -- can be convinced to make a mobile site, somebody can generate a new QRcode to point to the site, and the Guardian Angels (yes, they are in Tokyo too) can be convinced to print up new QRcode stickers. The Guardian Angels could cover QRcodes on advertisements at which little old ladies are unlikely to be aiming their out-of-date cameraphones. The victims are much more likely to be carrying late model phones with largish high-resolution screens, which will now be hijacked to show a stream of images guaranteed to cool the jets of all but the most fervent seekers of paid companionship.