Online Gambling Deals Between US And Other Countries Are A Matter Of National Security?

from the seriously? dept

Remember back in December, the EU, Canada and Japan suddenly agreed not to side with Antigua in the longstanding dispute over the US's online gambling ban violating free trade agreements? It was pretty clear that the US had cut some sort of deal with these countries (who had previously indicated they would side with Antigua). In order to understand what happened, a freelance writer named Ed Brayton filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get the actual agreement between the countries. And, as The Agitator points out, the US Trade Representative has denied the request, claiming that the agreement is classified, as it's a matter of national security. Yes. The US gov't is actually claiming that an agreement over online gambling between two countries is a matter of national security. Perhaps this really shouldn't be such a huge surprise. Remember, the law that was passed to ban online gambling was hidden as part of a law to protect our ports. Clearly, the EU, Canada and Japan had to side with the US against Antigua to protect our ports.

Filed Under: antigua, canada, classified info, eu, japan, national security, online gambling, us

Japanese Officials Use Copyright Law To Arrest Computer Virus Writer

from the misuses-of-copyright dept

Over in Japan, a 24-year-old grad student was arrested this week for writing a computer virus. There's just one problem. There's apparently no law in Japan against writing viruses. So, instead, officials had to twist copyright law to use it to arrest the guy. That was possible because the virus itself used popular animation clips as a means of getting people to click on it. Those animation clips violated copyrights. Now, it's nice to see officials cracking down on virus writers, but it's a shame for them to twist copyright law for that purpose. If the problem is that the law doesn't make virus writing illegal, then change the law. Using copyright law for other purposes starts you down a pretty slippery slope. Yes, it's true that the guy was also violating copyrights, but it seems pretty clear from the report that the reason officials went after him was because of the virus. Update: It turns out this story is even more bizarre. TorrentFreak reports that three people were arrested, and the virus itself threatened to kill people for using file sharing systems.

Filed Under: copyright, japan, viruses

Japan's Big Push To Regulate The Internet

from the politicians-should-stay-away dept

When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Considering that the only real tool politicians have is the ability to regulate, it's no wonder they try to regulate everything in sight. The Inquirer points us to a report about some efforts underway in Japan to dramatically increase regulation over the internet in a variety of different realms. The first area would be to expand what the Japanese "Broadcast Law" covers to include almost all web content. The law was intended to regulate broadcast content, but by adding in the phrase "open communication" it will now also include just about any public information put on the web, including newsgroups, bulletin boards and blogs. Once that's in place, the Japanese government will then be able to go after any content it finds "harmful," which seems rather loosely defined itself. The second change would push mobile phone operators to put in place various filters to block "harmful" content from minors -- though, again that definition of harmful is loosely described. The report notes that some operators already have such filters in place (though they're not mandatory) and it includes blocking various social network sites and some sites based on politics or sexual orientation. The final change would be to Japanese copyright law that currently says it's legal to download songs for personal use. The change would be to get rid of that exception. At this point, it sounds like all of these proposals are under review, rather than already put in place, but as the article notes, they don't seem to have received very much press attention, despite being major changes concerning internet regulations. All of these changes seem to be the type that politicians like. They all make the politicians look good for either "protecting the children" or helping out big industry lobbyists -- but which do little to actually help the people the government is supposed to represent.

Filed Under: internet, japan, regulation

Not Many Folks Pleased About US Paying Off EU, Japan And Canada Over Online Gambling

from the who-does-this-help? dept

On Tuesday, we wrote about how the US was paying off the EU, Japan and Canada over a trade dispute around online gambling. The real point was to get these three to back off from putting pressure on the US to abide by free trade agreements, which effectively required the US to allow online gambling as long as it was hosted in other countries. It's quite a shame that these countries basically accepted money to let the US get out of agreements it had made -- and many are beginning to point out how ridiculous the whole situation is, and how it's likely to harm future US trade agreements around the world. All for the sake of preventing people from being able to play a little online poker.

Related to this, bankers and bank lobbyists are trying to explain to US politicians that upcoming rules concerning online gambling are impossible to abide by. As you may recall, back in October, the US approved new legislation that would put the liability on banks to prevent money from being used for online gambling. Beyond the ridiculousness of trying to stop people from gambling online if they choose to do so, this particular law means that banks need to figure out what money is being used for online gambling and try to prevent such uses. How? Politicians don't bother to go that far. Meanwhile, I hear that the gov't continues to make good money from state lotteries...

Filed Under: antigua, canada, eu, japan, online gambling, wto

US Cuts Deals To Keep EU, Canada And Japan From Siding With Antigua In Online Gambling Dispute

from the so-much-for-that-plan dept

For quite some time now, we've covered the ongoing dispute between the US and Antigua over the fact that the US's ban on online gambling violates free trade agreements between the two countries. While the US has tried to unilaterally change those agreement to keep gambling out, the WTO has repeatedly made it clear that the US was at fault (even though the US has pretended otherwise). Either way, the US knew that it could simply ignore Antigua, as the tiny country couldn't do much to hurt it (even if it moved forward on its plan to become a piracy haven for digital content. However, earlier this year, there were rumblings that the EU would get involved on Antigua's side, putting a lot more pressure on the US. However, it appears that US politicians and diplomats made quick work of that signing new agreements with the EU, Canada and Japan to keep those three out of the way, leaving the dispute between the US and Antigua, with much less powerful countries like Costa Rica and Macau backing Antigua's position. Not surprisingly, online gambling firms in the EU aren't pleased that the powers that be in the EU rolled over like this -- and neither are folks in the US who still don't understand why it's okay for them to buy a lottery ticket, but they can't play a little poker online.

Filed Under: antigua, canada, eu, japan, online gambling, wto

Disney Takes Twice Failed MVNO Concept To Japan

from the going-in-the-wrong-direction? dept

Having already failed spectacularly (twice!) to offer mobile phone service in the US, Disney has apparently decided that Japan is the perfect place to try out its MVNO option for the third time. It's going to use Softbank's mobile network and try to convince people it's worth totally changing mobile phone service providers because (wait for it...) its "famous characters" will be associated with the handsets, and Disney movies will be available for download. Has the company has learned nothing from its failures in the US? Obviously, Japan is a very different culture -- especially when it comes to mobile services -- but if the entire differentiator is Disney's characters and movies, why not partner with all of the mobile operators already dominant in Japan? Getting people to completely switch providers just so they can be associated with Mickey Mouse seems like a pretty flimsy business plan. Success stories in the mobile operator market in Japan have usually centered around offering a wide range of more useful applications or by providing cheaper, better services (or better phones). Fantasia downloads hardly seems likely to wow the Japanese market.

Filed Under: japan, mvno
Companies: disney, softbank

Japan Is The Latest Country To Explore Copyright Term Extension

from the the-Disney-clause dept

William Patry points us to an article covering the debate going on in Japan about whether or not the country should extend copyright terms to life plus 70 years, rather than life plus 50 years. If this sounds familiar, it's because plenty of other countries, including the UK, have recently gone through similar debates. The problem is that in the 90s Disney freaked out that the copyright on Mickey Mouse was going to go into the public domain. So, it pushed for Congress (via Sonny Bono) to extend copyrights out an extra 20 years. This made very little sense. After all, the purpose of copyrights is to create an incentive for the creation of new works. If the incentive is sufficient at the time of creation, then clearly it worked. There is no reason to then extend that incentive long after it succeeded -- other than if you incorrectly believe that copyright is actually a welfare system for content creators. As the article points out, does anyone really believe that some people will only create content if they know it will be protected to 70 years past their death rather than 50? And, if that's true, then why don't the laws only protect newly created content? The content that was already created was created under the bargain that it was life plus 50. It would appear to be a violation of the pact that was made with the public (who give up the content from the public domain) to change those terms after the fact.

Filed Under: copyright extension, japan

Washington Post Notices That Japanese Broadband Is Pretty Damn Fast (And Competitive)

from the in-case-you-hadn't-been-paying-attention dept

While there isn't that much new there if you've been paying attention, the Washington Post has an article about how Japan reached the point where it has a highly competitive broadband market that is cheaper and many times faster than US broadband offerings. The Washington Post version does a pretty good job highlighting how opening up access to the core lines was a big part of it (as was newer infrastructure and the much smaller geographic footprint in Japan). It's a pretty balanced piece, and good background if you weren't familiar with the situation in Japan. There is one very interesting point, however, that doesn't get very much attention in this debate and deserves to be highlighted.

Whenever the debate comes up in the US about unbundling broadband networks and requiring network providers to offer their wholesale pricing to competitive providers, people say that it will kill those network providers and take away all of the incentive to invest in new network technologies. In Japan, it seems the exact opposite happened. When the gov't required DSL wholesaling to competitors, it certainly increased competition and lowered prices for consumers -- but it also opened up new uses for the network that increased demand for bandwidth. That became an opportunity for former monopoly provider NTT who was pushed (thanks to the competition which drove the increased usage) to invest heavily in a new fiber optic network that provided even better speeds and services. And what's happened? NTT is doing great: "NTT is becoming dominant again in the fiber broadband kingdom," according to a Japanese professor of telecom economics. This is a point we've tried to make repeatedly, but sometimes doesn't get through clearly: while many people fear that competition hurts innovation by making it tougher to profit, the opposite is usually true. Competition drives innovation as the competitors look for some edge that differentiates them and allows them to profit. That edge pushes the innovation train faster and faster, opening up new opportunities to earn even greater profits. The new things that people can do on fiber networks are going to help NTT (and others) make a lot more money than if it had remained offering pokey DSL without any competition.

Filed Under: broadband, dsl, japan
Companies: ntt, softbank, yahoo bb

Japanese Entertainment Industry Still Very Confused, Very Wrong About YouTube

from the let's-try-this-again-from-the-beginning dept

You may remember late last year that JASRAC, the group that represents various entertainment industry interests in Japan got very angry at YouTube and demanded the site prevent unauthorized videos from being uploaded. YouTube responded by trying to explain that it wasn't YouTube's fault, while also promising to put warnings about copyrights on the site in Japanese -- while also promising to travel to Japan and meet with entertainment industry officials there. This week a second round of those meetings happened and it appears that Japanese entertainment industry is still confused. They're not at all happy with YouTube, demanding that "all copyrighted material be removed immediately."

That was the statement from composer Hideki Matsutake, who apparently was the spokesmen for the coalition of entertainment industry interests that met with Google/YouTube execs. Of course, that doesn't make any sense. Thanks to current copyright laws, all new content automatically is copyrighted once created. In other words, nearly all content on YouTube is under someone's copyright. What the guy really means is that he wants all unauthorized content removed from YouTube and that's much more difficult -- because there's no easy way to know whether or not the content has been authorized. There are plenty of copyright holders who not only choose to put their content on sites like YouTube, but actually are thrilled when fans promote their content by uploading it to YouTube. Unfortunately, this Japanese group doesn't seem to understand that. Even more to the point, they apparently fail to understand that even if YouTube completely shut down today, all of that content would simply move to other sites -- and those sites are likely to care even less about what a coalition of Japanese entertainers and entertainment companies want them to do.

Filed Under: copyright, japan
Companies: google, jasrac, youtube

Is Sony Actually Turning Things Around Now?

from the given-enough-time,-anything-is-possible dept

Sony's attempts at a turnaround have been pretty slowgoing, but their latest quarterly results -- showing profits double last year's -- generated some enthusiasm that things were on the right track. Although some parts of the company's business have picked up, the biggest factor in the increased profits was a weakening yen, which boosted the value of overseas sales. Investors shouldn't discount the currency effect, but they do have some other reasons to be upbeat: the company's movie unit is doing well, and its Sony Ericsson mobile phone joint venture continues to grow its market share. While the electronic business overall is looking healthier, Sony's TV unit is still underperforming, and the gaming business is still in the can. Sony's video-game unit boosted its sales by 60 percent over the same quarter last year, which is great, except that its losses grew as well, partly because it's still selling the PS3 for less than it costs to build. The game unit got a new boss a little while ago, but it doesn't yet look like he's making a lot of progress. Sony announced a price cut for the US on one PS3 model, and also said it will deliver a new high-end version and a load of new games. But it's hard to see those small changes making a big difference in terms of getting the mass market to buy into the PS3, particularly when you contrast Sony's strategy to that of Nintendo, whose business is booming. Still, Sony's problems are far from solved -- but it is showing some signs of life.

Filed Under: electronics, japan, ps3, video games
Companies: sony