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Added by gia manry on March 26, 2009

I don't know how many of you remember a lot of scuffling about by the Japanese anime, video, and other recording industries about how to deal with piracy, both domestically and abroad. I recently spotted an article over at Watch.Impress that talks a bit about a subcommittee consisting of industry reps who are talking about the issue.


“Industry representatives in the Private Recording Subcommittee have previously stated that if content can be totally controlled via digital rights management software (DRM), there would be no need for the Compensation System. On this point Mr. Kawase explains, 'Of course, the subcommittee has developed a general consensus after debating specific (DRM-related) issues. However, the debate moving forward will center on refining that general consensus.'”


Basically, they're trying to figure out whether they can implement some kind of way to provide digital media that guarantees proper compensation to the copyright owners and creators, or if the only way to deal with piracy is to try and prevent it with DRM.


There's also been talk about establishing a Japanese version of a “fair use” principle like that in place in the United States, although apparently it has a lot of opponents in the Subcommittee on Legal Affairs.


So, what would this all mean for anime fans? DRM wouldn't make much difference to fansubbers; they get most of their videos via TV rips, not DVD (at least for speed-subs)-- though that only counts for shows airing on TV. Heavy use of DRM could definitely make it tougher to rip CD releases as well.


That said, DRM has also proven pretty ineffective in the US, as well as unpopular. How do you think it'd go in Japan?


As for fair use-- that could tentatively make parody use of anime for, say, AMVs and the like legitimate. So it'll be interesting to see if that goes through as well.


(Article translated by brand-new Anime Vice intern Eric Andre!)


Filed under : Japan

6 Comments

HeeroYuy
on March 26, 2009
What people need to realize when it comes to restrictive user end controls, such as DRM, is basically the same lesson the people polling for gun control need to/have been learning: The only people that such big-brother style controls are going to affect are the law-abiding people that deserve to have some control of it in the first place. Just as criminals and drug runners are always going to be able to get their hands on guns and so excessive gun control only inhibits good people from defending themselves, putting DRM on music or anime is only going to affect the people that payed for the product with their hard-earned money. What major corporations need to learn (and some of them are, luckily) is that in this day and age you're not going to be able to have full control over the user anymore and control what they do. FIGURE SOMETHING ELSE OUT.

MoonStorm
on March 26, 2009
DRM dose not matter even the best DRM will be broken in a short time. The only people you are hurting are those who legitimately buy the product.

Quarkboy
on March 27, 2009
This has pretty much nothing to do with anime.  This would only effect CDs and music distribution.

Anime is already DRMed, completely, in every single form it is legitimately distributed in.

TV broadcasts are encrypted and devices that record digital transport streams are illegal.  (Except you can buy them on the grey market easily)
DVDs and Blu-rays have copyright protection built in as well. (Except both DVD and BD copy protections have been cracked)
Digital downloads from Japanese websites all use microsoft WMV DRM. (Again, this DRM is relatively easily broken)

If they are serious about distributing anime ONLY through means in which there is complete and utter control over the content, that would mean internet only, streaming, account based time-limited watermarked video content.  No TV broadcasts, no physical media, no distribution of the content in any way that doesn't require calling home each time it is viewed.  But that's not what this article is talking about.  What it's talking about is DRM music tracks on CDs.  That's basically it.


HeeroYuy
on March 27, 2009
@Quarkboy: What on earth are you talking about?? Illegal? You can buy even a USB HD TV tuner card for your computer at almost any electronics store, and much of the software that comes with them for playback can have a plugin installed that will let you record (though I recommend the PCI slot card ones over the USB ones, they tend to work better). The devices themselves aren't illegal.

Quarkboy
on March 27, 2009
@HeeroYuy
Those only started appearing last summer, and although they do allow you to record in full HD, they obey copy flags and store the mpeg-transport stream encrypted so you can't copy the recordings unless the DRM allows you to.  For example, if you have a blu-ray burner you'd be able to burn the recordings to a blu-ray disc, but you can only do that once, and then the copy on your hard drive is deleted.
Devices that save the digital transport streams without obeying the embedded do not copy, copy once, or copy 10 flags are illegal to be sold within Japan. 

markop2003
on April 18, 2009
DRM just restrains the end user, if somene wants to get past DRM they will. With games pirates have got past even DRM which requires a connection to the publisher's servers and a unique key, so simple DVD DRM will be cracked in a matter of hours after release.


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