Did Japan And Korea Just Make Life Really Difficult For Any Cloud Service Provider?

from the does-the-length-of-the-wire-matter? dept

For a while we followed the important Cablevision remote DVR case, in which the entertainment industry argued that Cableivision offering a hosted DVR service for its users was infringing on their copyrights, even though DVRs are legal. The entertainment industry strained its credulity by arguing that because the DVR device was on Cablevision's property, rather than in someone's house (even though they functioned nearly identically), it completely changed the rules. They said that Cablevision required separate content licenses to offer such a service. Effectively, they were arguing that the length between the DVR and the TV determines whether or not there's infringement. That, of course, is ridiculous (though even more ridiculous was when they compared a DVR to murder).

Thankfully, the Second Court agreed and put forth a pretty good, if slightly awkward, ruling, which pointed out that it didn't matter where the device was, that time shifting is legal, and this service really seemed no different than a DVR. The entertainment industry (of course) appealed, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, so the law stands in the 2nd Circuit -- though with such a high profile case, one hopes that other Circuits would tend to defer to this ruling (though, they certainly don't have to).

Separately, we covered a very similar case in Singapore, involving RecordTV, which had trouble at the lower courts, but eventually came to a similar ruling as the US. In that case, the court even noted that allowing remote DVRs seems to provide benefits to society.

However, courts in other areas of the world apparently aren't quite as enlightened. Wonil Chung, an IP lawyer in Korea, recently sent over his excellent review of a number of similar cases from Korea and Japan where the rulings eventually all went the other way. The cases there all have their own specific details, but the general point was that the courts seemed to feel that if the equipment is housed and "owned" by the service provider, then the actions are done by the service provider... even if the end user is the one clicking the button. Effectively, those courts are saying that the length of the cable matters. Chung's analysis is balanced, and he notes that this can be a tricky issue. I agree that it's a complex issue that requires thinking through a variety of issues, but in the end, I have no problem saying that I believe the Korean and Japanese rulings defy common sense, while the US and Singapore rulings make sense.

Where it gets really important is understanding the wider implications of these rulings. Based on the rulings in Korea and Japan, it just became a lot more expensive and risky to set up any cloud-based service in either country. That's because these rulings effectively say that liability is determined by the location of the equipment, rather than the location of the user. Cloud-based services have the equipment hosted far away from the user. But does that really mean that the service providers have now taken on the liability? In Korea and Japan apparently the answer is yes, and that should put a chill through anyone building cloud-based offerings in either country.

Filed Under: dvrs, japan, korea, liability, remote dvr, service providers, singapore
Companies: cablevision, recordtv

DailyDirt: Nuclear Power Plants 101

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's hard to express the devastation caused by the earthquake in Japan. And even though the aftershocks have subsided, now there's the threat of radioactive pollution from a nearby nuclear power plant. But make no mistake, the majority of the disaster has been caused by natural forces -- and the nuclear power plant meltdown(s) shouldn't shoulder too much blame.

• Japan is currently dealing with some serious problems after its Fukushima nuclear power plant couldn't quite handle both an earthquake AND a tsunami. Considering the scale of the damage, though, direct comparisons to Chernobyl seem unwarranted. [url]
• The Fukushima power plant has "generation II" reactors which need to actively pump cooling water through the system. Newer reactor designs rely on passive systems that don't require cooling water to be pumped into them. [url]
• So far, Fukushima is a "level 4" severity event. (Chernobyl was a "level 7" -- the most severe). There's still some debate if Fukushima will become a "level 5" with more than just local effects, but it won't get to level 7.... [url]
• Thorium reactors have been getting some renewed attention as "greener" nuclear power. China has stated a goal of producing a third of its electricity demand using thorium reactors by 2050. [url]
• There are also a bunch of "generation IV" reactor designs in various stages of planning. These reactors now face even more scrutiny (which is good), but the construction of future nuclear reactors will probably be delayed while everyone debates the risks. [url]
• To discover other kinds of alternative energy projects, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

As always, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: earthquake, japan, nuclear power, thorium, tsunami

Japanese Government Study Shows Anime 'Piracy' Could Boosts Sales

from the but-but-but-piracy! dept

Just as a whole bunch of folks have been sued in one of these mass copyright infringement shakedown lawsuits over sharing of Funimation anime, it seems worth pointing out that a new Japanese government study on the impact of unauthorized file sharing of anime has concluded that unauthorized copies of anime often appear to increase DVD sales. The study looked at both videos showing up on YouTube as well as those that appeared on Winny, the super popular file sharing platform in Japan. The study found a very strong impact from YouTube -- even saying that it appears many people learn about potential anime DVDs by watching the videos on YouTube first. With Winny, the impact wasn't as strong, and could decrease rental income, but did not decrease DVD sales. Of course, the study only looks at the correlation of videos appearing online and sales, rather than proving any causal link, so it's possible that other variables are involved. At the very least, though, this study (which is similar to other studies we've seen) certainly suggests that having the video widely available doesn't kill off sales, as many industry folks insist.

Filed Under: anime, japan, sales

Leaked State Department Cables Confirm That ACTA Was Designed To Pressure Developing Nations

from the no-surprise-there dept

The site La Quadrature Du Net has a rather comprehensive look at a series of leaked State Department cables that confirm what many people said from the beginning about ACTA: that it was designed by US special interests as an "end run" around existing international intellectual property groups, since those groups had actually started listening to the concerns of many other nations about how overly strict intellectual property laws were stifling innovation, economic growth and were, at times, a threat to human safety. This point had been made by ACTA critics for quite some time, but now the leaked State Department cables effectively confirm it:

One of the core objectives is to circumvent international organizations in charge of "intellectual property", where maximalist countries such as the US and the EU have been facing growing opposition from developing countries. Not just WIPO and WTO, but also the OECD: Initially, the Japanese proposed to ask the OECD for some help in drafting the agreement, but US officials suggest a different process, stressing that that they have sufficient in-house expertise, and insist on avoiding any collaboration with international organizations

The full cable on this matter makes it clear that the US had a big plan and that plan involved bringing together only "like-minded" countries, and Japan was gleeful about this, but had originally expected the OECD would help.

From there, the plans become even clearer. The idea is to first do all of this with those "like-minded" (i.e., protectionist) countries, and then use the agreement to try to pressure those developing nations and other nations concerned about the expansive problems of intellectual property law into "joining." In other words, stack the deck first with those who benefit most, and then use international pressure to force the agreement on those who aren't comfortable with the end result of such laws.

The cables show that ACTA -- although negotiated between "like-minded countries" -- is ultimately meant to be imposed on developing countries. Early on, the US and Japan deem necessary to recruit developing countries so as to ensure the "legitimacy" of the agreement. Jordan and Morocco are the first to be mentioned, given their acceptance of tough copyright, trademark and patents provisions in bilateral free trade agreements recently concluded with the US.

However, one key concern for the negotiators is that ACTA might appear for what it is -- that is to say an agreement drafted by rich countries to be imposed on the developing world. Mexican officials are especially keen on helping out on this front. During a meeting with US counterparts, Mexicans stress "their willingness to join the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations and push-back against Brazilian efforts to undermine IPR in international health organizations," according to the US account of the meeting. Brazil's push for progressive policies on the international arena is denounced by Mexican officials, who offer to play the "good cops" by acting alongside the US to push for maximal patent and copyright standards at the global level.

Mexico selling out to US interests over its own people -- how nice. In fact, in one of the cables, Japan explicitly states that the purpose of ACTA is to impose rules on China, Russia and Brazil.

Oh yeah, remember all those claims from US officials about how ACTA was just an agreement to align "enforcement" techniques and really had nothing (nothing!) to do with changing laws? Yeah, turns out they were lying. In discussing the early plans for ACTA, US officials indicated to Japanese officials that the US was perfectly happy to change its laws to greater protectionism around copyright and patents:

He added that Congress has welcomed the opportunity to engage on these issues, changing laws where necessary. Moore stressed that the United States is keen to move forward quickly, but with an effective, high-standard agreement. As we work together to reach out to other like-minded countries, he said, it will be essential for Japan to consider seriously improvements to its enforcement regime.

Again, almost nothing in these cables is new or a surprise. But it does confirm what many ACTA critics had said early on, and prove that US official statements on ACTA were clearly inaccurate at best, and deliberately misleading at worst.

Filed Under: acta, copyright, japan, mexico, us

Japanese Court Says That Place Shifting TV Overseas Is Infringing

from the ah,-modern-technology dept

As you follow the copyright world, you quickly learn how quickly modern technology obsoletes copyright law. For example, when VCRs first came out, the industry thought it was infringing, but courts finally realized that the benefits to such things outweighed the potential costs, and declared that such time shifting was not, in fact, infringement. A similar debate was had when DVRs hit the market. Similar to the debate over time shifting, was the debate over place shifting, with things like Sling box, that allow you to transfer your TV programming away from your TV to a computer or some other device.

Over in Japan they're dealing with this same issue, where Japan's Supreme Court has decided that place shifting Japanese TV shows overseas is infringing (via Public Knowledge). It doesn't sound like this service was sending "pirated" copies -- but instead, had just set up a remote Slingbox-like operation, that would allow someone from overseas to tap into a legit television account. I can understand why a literal reading of copyright law might suggest this is infringement, but it seems like a common sense reading would make you question how that makes sense.

And that's kind of the point in all of these discussions. Copyright law was designed for a different world, and these days, most of what it seems to do is hold back what the technology enables -- especially when that technology is more efficient and useful. Letting people overseas pay to access content that is legally being broadcast simply shouldn't be infringing, but copyright law doesn't deal well with such situations, unless you finally get judges (such as in the Sony Betamax case in the US) who realize that such an end-result is nonsensical. So, in the end, it's left up to the whims of judges to determine whether or not useful technology is even allowed to exist, and that's not exactly a good recipe for innovation.

Filed Under: dvrs, japan, placeshifting, timeshifting

Woman Sues Google Because She Hung Her Underwear Outside, And Street View Caught It

from the uh,-maybe-hang-your-underwear-elsewhere dept

A woman in Japan is apparently suing Google for "psychological distress," after she discovered that the Street View image of her home displayed some of her underwear that she had hung out to dry on a clothesline. She claims that when she found this image, it made her fear that she would be a victim of a sex crime (does she not realize that nearly everyone has underwear?) and she started to fear that "everything she was doing throughout the day was being secretly recorded." Uh yeah. Hopefully the judge tosses this out pretty quickly, or soon you'll have lots of people purposely hanging their underwear in their front yards in order to sue Google and demand compensation. Here's a tip: maybe next time, if you're so worried about this, don't hang your underwear where a car driving by on the street can see it.

Filed Under: japan, privacy, streetview
Companies: google

Arrested In Japan For Showing People A New Pokemon Character A Few Days Early?

from the copyright-laws-gone-mad dept

In certain countries (including the US), the punishment for copyright infringement can be much higher if you distribute a "pre-release" offering. This is really designed to go after people "leaking" music or movies or whatever before their official release dates. However, over in Japan, it appears that such a law has been used to arrest a guy who leaked a few images of "unrevealed" Pokemon characters a few days before they were officially revealed. Copyright infringement is the reason for the arrest. I'm having a difficult time figuring out what kind of "harm" this guy did. It's not as if revealing the characters early makes it so that people are less likely to buy the new Pokemon game in which these characters were appearing. Imagine if this guy were a reporter for a publication that covered such games, and he got a leak or a tipoff and published a story about those same characters? Would it still be "copyright infringement"?

Filed Under: copyright, japan, pokemon

ACTA Negotiators Refuse To Set Up More Timely Meeting For Consumer Advocates

from the who-needs-consumers? dept

Following up on the news of how ACTA negotiators hid the information about the latest round of negotiations, including scheduling the only opportunity for consumer advocates to meet with negotiators until it was too late for those consumer advocates to get to Tokyo in time for the meeting, a bunch of those groups asked the Japanese delegation to change the schedule to allow for a meeting next week, rather than on the 24th. Sean Flynn passes along the note he received (and others got nearly identical notes):

Dear Mr.Flynn

Thank you for your contact.

First of all, we regret that we could not inform you earlier of the lunch meeting.

As we just settled our program of this round this week with other parties, we have not able to inform our schedule to public beforehand.

Please kindly understand our situation.

Actually lunch time on 24 Sept is the only slot for NGO meeting.

The purpose of the lunch meeting provides an opportunity to exchange views informally between the negotiating parties and the public, not a firm consultation.

All ACTA negotiation parties recognize the importance of transparency and we are to discuss any ways to promote transparency of ACTA negotiations.

Best regards

Yoshihiro Takeda

Flynn also points us to the news that the Green Party in the EU also asked to meet with negotiators in Tokyo, and there was some hope that perhaps that the negotiators would agree to that, since the EU Parliament has made it clear that they are not happy with ACTA and may try to block it. But... no such luck:

Dear Sirs

Thank you for your message.

We understand the Greens/EFA Group's interest in the transparency very well.

The Government of Japan also recognizes the importance of the transparency in ACTA negotiations and decided to arrange a lunch meeting with the public on September 24 as you know.

However, it is with regret that we cannot arrange the meeting during the week of September 27 due to purely practical organizational reasons.

We regret that we could not inform you earlier of lunch meeting as you pointed out. As we just settled the program of ACTA negotiations in Tokyo this week with the negotiating parties, we cannot inform our lunch meeting to public beforehand. Please kindly understand our situation.

ACTA negotiating parties share the intention to promote transparency and we are to discuss any ways to promote the transparency of ACTA negotiations.

Best regards

Yoshihiro Takeda

Talk about lip service to transparency while at the same time mocking it. Also, while some supporters of ACTA seem to claim that because the documents were shown once to such public interest groups everything's perfectly transparent, it seems pretty damn obvious that those working on ACTA have done their best to keep rather important stakeholders very much out of the conversation. Of course, the industries, who are such fans of ACTA, may discover that screwing over consumers and consumer advocates comes back to bite them. You don't have much of a business without consumers after all.

Filed Under: acta, consumer advocates, eu, green party, japan, sean flynn, tokyo

Japanese Band Sells Hawaiian Vacation With The Band

from the people-will-pay-for-access dept

Perhaps other bands have done this in the past, but I just found out about a band from Japan (who, believe it or not, I've seen perform live), The Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (better known as Skapara), that is offering its fans a one-week Hawaiian trip with the band, including a plane ticket from Tokyo, a week with the band in Hawaii, including a private acoustic show on a cruise. The whole thing runs about $2,200, which doesn't seem too crazy if you're a huge fan of the band and want a trip to Hawaii (from Japan). And this is a band with a pretty big following (i.e., has sold out stadiums in Japan).

We've pointed out before that selling "access" to musicians is an excellent scarcity to sell, and with one recent study having 19% of respondents agree to the hyperbolic statement that they would pay anything to meet their favorite music stars, this seems like a business model that could be explored more. And, before people start claiming that we're now saying "the business model is to take vacations with your fans," just like we keep getting people falsely accuse us of saying the business model is to play mini-golf with fans, that's not what we're saying at all. We're just suggesting that bands explore ways in which access can work as a scarcity. It might not work for all acts, but it is an area that some might want to explore.

Filed Under: japan, tokyo ska paradise orchestra

Digitizing Your Own Books Becoming Popular In Japan

from the expect-a-backlash dept

Tim O'Reilly points us to a new report out of Japan, noting that it's becoming increasingly popular for people to digitize their own books (a practice called "jisui"). Yes, they're taking books they legally own and scanning them, so that they can store them as ebooks, and read them on various devices such as the iPad. I would have thought this wasn't a popular practice, but at least one study found that 20% of iPad owners in Japan had done so, and another 30% were interested in doing so.

What's interesting is how this is boosting ancillary businesses: specifically there's a strong demand for scanners that make it easier to scan and backup your books. In Japan, digitizing your own books for personal use is apparently legal under that country's copyright law, but some publishers are getting worried about this practice and are considering what to do about it. And, of course, some copyright "experts" are already saying that Japanese copyright law needs to be updated to deal with this.

Or, perhaps, just this once, we shouldn't change copyright law to limit what new technology allows, and recognize that maybe, just maybe, this action is showing what people want, which book publishers haven't been fulfilling.

Filed Under: books, digitizing, ebooks, japan