Sorry for the non-bowling related update... This is related to the recent crackdown on YouTube regarding P-League videos. Sometimes, things get lost in translation. Higashi-san has done an excellent job explaining twice about why the videos were taken down. What he didnt explain, however, is the depth of the seriousness of the copyright infringement, and how widespread the crackdown really is. In the United States and many other countries, most copyright infringement cases are treated as a civil issue. Groups like RIAA and MPAA sue the individuals for money. Copyright infringement is much more serious in Japan. In the last few years, Japanese companies like JASRAC, who represents the music and video industries, successfully persuaded the Japanese government to pass legislation, treating copyright infringement as a felony. Dozens of arrests have since then been made as a result of using copyrighted materials without permission. As recently as May 2014, a karaoke establishment owner in Hyogo Prefecture was arrested for allowing his customers to sing JASRAC-managed material without a license. Also in May, a man in Hokkaido Prefecture was arrested for uploading copyrighted videos to Niconico Douga, and then allowing people to convert the audio from these videos to MP3. And, it doesnt matter where the videos are uploaded - whether it is YouTube, DailyMotion, etc. No web site is protected. If the person uploaded the videos from a computer in Japan, he is liable under Japanese copyright law. Some of you outside of Japan may have seen Japanese video rental shops in your area. We have a bunch of these in Honolulu. Japanese video companies license the content from the owners, and then place these special holographic decals onto every licensed video. The company, 放送番組著作権保護協議会, or HOBANKYO for short, manages these videos. If a store is found to be renting out unlicensed videos, the store can be held liable under Japanese law, since Japan and many other countries share copyright treaties, such as the the World Intellectual Property Copyright Treaty, or the Berne Convention. The U.S. and Japan have signed onto both of these treaties. And then, some of you may wonder how other people are getting away with sharing anime, manga, and other copyrighted works on-line. Theyre just as much in violation of copyright infringement as the P-League videos on YouTube. Two wrongs dont make a right! Crunchy Roll is an example of this. The company started out allowing copyrighted fansubs to be uploaded to its servers. Once the Japanese companies cracked down on the practice, CR worked with the Japanese companies to form an alliance, allowing CR to license anime and stream it. Although someone could actually do this with P-League, ladies bowling is nowhere even close to the the popularity of anime. Again, sorry for this lengthy un-bowling related update. I felt that the situation needed some justification once and for all.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 03:53:19 +0000
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