In their “Intellectual Property Strategic Program 2008”, the Japanese government proposes measures for curbing the unauthorised online sharing and distribution of anime and manga, in what could very well turn out to be an assault on fansubbing and the sharing of anime and other Japanese cultural products.
The most relevant item the Secretariat of Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters proposes:
Going Forward on the Elimination of Infringing Contents from Overseas Movie Sharing Sites
So as to remove the infringing contents which pose an impediment to our nation’s content businesses, in 2008 we plan to implement measures to enhance online distribution of contents and facilitate the elimination of infringing contents. In 2008 we aim for the introduction of a framework in which Japanese IP holders can more easily make demands for the removal of infringing content, as well as the introduction of technical measures facilitating such, aimed against certain countries.
There are also some other items which do not mention online distribution specifically, but do mention unspecified Asian countries, so these can be assumed to be polite plans to dissuade China from pirating everything.
The plan also has several other elements; most notably for the planners, they are looking to implement an EU style protected designation of origin system, where Japanese products will gain exclusive legal rights to use the name of their place of origin. This follows on from plenty of liberal Chinese use of place Japanese names in purely Chinese products, as well as complaints over the use of various foodstuff names in the US and elsewhere.
More interestingly, they also call for action against P2P file sharing, though I doubt a year has gone by in which they have not, so this may be unimportant.
The full “Intellectual Property Strategic Program 2008” can be read in Japanese here, and English translations of earlier reports are also available. The plan came to my attention here, though that source lacks much in the way of details.
The plan proposes activity which seems somewhat ambiguous; usually I would tend to assume that moves against anime piracy are targeted more against Chinese pirate DVDs and the like (several of the measure specifically mention “Asia”), but the explicit mention of file sharing and unauthorised online movie distribution overseas, along with plenty of acknowledgement of how anime is Japan’s leading cultural export, doesn’t support that interpretation.
They also do not make any mention of P2P versus YouTube style sharing, so it is hard to know if they are looking at both or not.
It should also be noted that the 2007 report barely mentions piracy and doesn’t mention online distribution at all, concentrating on protecting plant varieties and other interesting topics, so it does appear this is not just a yearly repetition of a call for action against piracy, but a potentially concerted effort.
It does appear Japan (or at least a mishmash of ministries) is looking to put in place the international legal infrastructure to facilitate a crackdown, so the issue really becomes one of implementation – can we expect a tacit acknowledgement of the enormously positive influence fansubs and other unauthorised distribution has on anime’s popularity, and so only very limited action against it as has been the case in the past? Or will they push for an indiscriminate crackdown?
“can we expect a tacit acknowledgement of the enormously positive influence fansubs and other unauthorised distribution has on anime’s popularity, and so only very limited action against it as has been the case in the past?” - Maybe when Hell freezes over… I think the limited actions in the past were due to the fact that the Japanese didn’t quite understand the whole phenomenon of fansubs, and had no tactics to follow. I really doubt they understand, let alone acknowledge that fansubs may have a positive influence, especially now that the industry is in a pinch in the US and everyone and their dog is blaming fansubs. (Clinging to outdated business models, both in Japan and in the US, is of course never the cause.)
Japanese anime companies do seem to appreciate the value of fan culture, it’s a more question of whether they choose to apply that overseas, and whether they appreciate the publicity effect… as you say, the American publishers are a fairly incompetent bunch.
Failage is evident. I doubt they can pull through with something consistent except against Chinese pirated stuff. For online stuff it is going to be difficult for them, but it may be because of the recent file sharing virus cases that were caught that may have finally shaken them.
This feels so Napster.
The whole situation is stupid. The solution is staring these idiots right in the face. You can’t beat them, so join them..
Get in touch with fansubbing groups and get them under contract. Offer them a very small slice of the profit pie if they place an advertisement in the middle of the video. Then stream it for free at a decent resolution. Offer it for a buck if they want high resolution. Heck, I’d pay that.
The only complicated part is how to handle distribution and advertising using Bit Torrent. Maybe the answer there is to only offer videos in a particular format like RealPlayer (yes I hate real player too but thats a format that can supporting advertising)
Right now, the Fan subbing community pretty much handles all advertising for new shows for free. So there goes your savings from a marketing prospective. Using bit torrent and streaming drastically cuts your distribution costs. Relying on Fan Subbing instead of licensing through US or other international distributors GREATLY increases your margins. All you need to do is sell advertising in multiple countries. Heck, they could also market figures and other toys more thoroughly.
There are so many ways to make coin off the fan subbing community it is stupidly simple. The problem is that these Japanese execs have their blinders on and can’t see outside their narrow view. There is a ton of money sitting on the table but they are focused on the pennies on the floor…
I certainly agree that they are overlooking a potentially huge market opportunity, they still seem fixed in the old territorial paradigm of content delivery, when they could be allowing fans to produce localisations on top of their own streams, rather than using regional companies; the whole thing could then be distributed through the efforts of the anime loving community (eg. blogs and forums, etc).
I also feel the same way with respect to manga - I’d really rather read it digitally on a 27 inch monitor than squint at a tiny little book, but so far they can’t see past festooning any such effort with so much DRM that it cannot compete with unauthorised downloads.
But looking at what happened to the music industry, it may be that these kind of uncertain plans are too much for such unwieldy enterprises to take.
Yeah…You have to wonder how they had the initiative to make a campaign like this. This couldn’t possibly hurt dvd sales as much as the anime/otaku industry is profiting. Especially when the market is steadily growing, and I can only imagine how much influence the western has where otaku culture can be called a hobby. The only reason fansubs or scanlations exist is because the material isn’t available as it is in Japan. Clearly this was made on a whim, with no knowledge of anything outside of the coziness of Japan.
Whether they like it or not, fansubbing and scanlating will not die off until 100% of the fans have access to their daily/weekly/monthly dosage of anime/manga/visual novels/light novels at a speed equivalent or better than the internet. All I can offer is, ‘QQ moar?’