NicoNico Douga’s fortunes may be turning once again, for we hear that the Japanese government, specifically the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, is set to put into action a plan which would enshrine in law special “cyber-districts”, where authors using commercially held copyrighted works in their creations would be legally allowed to ignore the usual requirements for permission and royalties.
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Another in the apparently strong genre of strictly unauthorised cosplay AVs emerges. This production (below, above we see an earlier work) is set to star AV performer 香坂百合 / Yuri Kousaka; she has appeared in a variety of similar efforts to tap the doujinshi ignorant market which seemingly exists – her latest production is said to feature a series of displays of manual dexterity of great interest to fans of the art.
Due in early September, by way of the unfortunately named Soft On Demand, entitled 涼宮ヒハルの超激手コキ / Suzumiya Hiharu no Chou-Gekisou Tekoki.
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Nintendo have taken umbrage at the distribution of backup devices aimed at their DS handheld, and have, together with a massive alliance of 54 other companies, many of them big players, opted to hound the offending companies out of existence with a lawsuit.
The device they are targeting is the R4 Revolution (actually a flash cartridge), and their strategy is to sue five of the companies involved in the Japanese distribution of the device.
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As part of the upcoming Olympic marketing event, some original promotional efforts have been taken up by Beijing entrepreneurs. Any resemblance to any Disney characters, or for that matter Doraemon or the like, is purely incidental. Regarding the not-Mickey statues: “They have holes in the ears, so it’s not a copy” we are assured.
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Data and insider anecdote both point to a sudden and precipitous collapse in YouTube pretender NicoNico Douga’s popularity; in the face of such a reverse the talk of making Nico into national infrastructure seems mere hubris – it may be lucky to ever turn a profit, let alone expand overseas.
Might this have something to do with the recent supplication of Nico before its new masters? In all probability, yes; the graphs really speak for themselves on this.
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NicoNico Douga bosses 夏野剛 / Takeshi Natsuno (a seasoned seller of mobile phone melodies parachuted in to try to stop the cash haemorrhage at Nico’s managing firm Niwango) and 西村博之 / Hiroyuki Nishimura (no less a man than the founder of 2ch and now Nico honcho) have given a most interesting interview on the future and past of NicoNico.
Much is revealed of their plans for expansion; notably we hear they intend to see NicoNico become a part of the national infrastructure of Japan, that they intend a plan of overseas expansion, just as soon as they have dealt with the trifling matter of losing millions of dollars, and that, yes, the biggest challenge facing them may indeed be kowtowing to the intellectual property cartels without wiping their servers bare.
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NicoNico Douga has prostrated itself before the might of Japanese intellectual property cartels such as the AJA, JVA and MPAA, and Nico maintainer Dwango is now their willing and obedient slave in all matters, we hear. They have supinely expunged all content the groups deem infringing (and not just limited to anime), so they must be excused if their servers are a little bare at present.
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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.
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The recent political attacks on the adult game industry seem to have stirred up a hornet’s nest in defence of the eroge makers, but the makers themselves seem to other concerns, claiming their industry is in imminent danger of mass bankruptcy, not due to the depredations of populist politicians, but due to that most reviled nemesis of software developers everywhere, piracy.
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The “grey zone” into which dojinshi fall may soon disappear, which full legal recognition of the right to fair use, if a new government initiative to reform copyright law reaches fruition. The reform is still under formation, but could very well see the light of day.
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Japanese recording industry mafia JASRAC reports that 2007 royalty collections for music licensing are ranked as follows:
1: 『Flavor Of Life』 宇多田ヒカル – Flavor Of Life, Utada Hikaru (Hana Yori Dango)
2: 『エヴァンゲリオンBGM』– Evangelion BGM
3: 『LOVERS AGAIN』 EXILE
4: 『ドラゴンボールZ BGM（TV）』– Dragon Ball Z BGM (TV)
5: 『涙そうそう』 夏川りみ、BEGIN、森山良子
Total proceeds increased 4.1% over the previous year to ¥115 billion, about $1.1 billion, with cable television said to be a primary factor in the revenue growth.
Flavor of Life from is from one of the many Hana Yori Dango adaptations, and the Eva and DBZ titles need no introduction (apparently international airing of DBZ contributed heavily). With even more Eva related sales on the cards it is likely the strong showing will persist.
It seems an interesting development for their sales to apparently be moving away from direct sales via CD and the like towards indirect licensing ventures. From the JASRAC fiscal reports, digested by AnimeAnime.
