Google's YouTube to Warn Japanese Users on Piracy

[engine]

Google's YouTube.com agreed to display warnings on its website in Japanese not to upload copyright materials to the popular Internet service, a group of Japanese media firms said on Tuesday.

The decision comes as a part of ongoing talks between YouTube and Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC), which last year pushed the American firm to erase 30,000 clips from its pages because of copyright infringement.

Google's YouTube to Warn Japanese Users on Piracy [usatoday.com]

[BillyS]

This is a continuing trend that I predicted earlier [webmasterworld.com] Youtube was a fun place because it had no limits. You could post soft porn or pirated materials - anything you wanted and kids loved it. Google is slowly taking this site's appeal away because it's taking on the look of corporation that acts responsibly.

[bill]

YouTube is a great repository for these files, and all of the younger Internet users in Japan know about it. It fills a real gap left by Japanese media companies. You wouldn't see so many Japanese flocking to an English language web service if there weren't demand.

I also agree with BillyS that they're losing a lot of their appeal by "going corporate". People in Japan and elsewhere are already looking for alternatives.

[walkman]

>> I also agree with BillyS that they're losing a lot of their appeal by "going corporate".
I think you meant by obeying the law. A store would be cool if it offered free shoes too, but it don't work this way in real life.

[bill]

Don't get me started on Japanese copyright law... ;)

I'm not advocating breaking any laws, but it's clear that the more they restrict things the less popular they'll be. It's like the Napster paradigm. Once they effectively neuter this service the traffic will flow elsewhere.

[walkman]

I know Bill, just saying that they are two sides of the story. If you write an article and another copies it to put ads on his site you, and I, would be extremely upset. Many of these shows cost up to $1 million an episode...

I belive that content owners want to make a deal, they simply want YouTube to give them more. They think that youtube is nothing without their (collective) content so why should youtube be the one to dictate terms? If they moved the good content to another x-tube, that site would become popular instantly so youtube has to be careful.

[bill]

Agreed.
In a lot of ways this YouTube phenomena may just be what the Japanese media needed to get their butts in gear. It's hard to ignore the popularity of this medium and there is a dearth of offerings in Japan. Also you have an upswing in interest from outside Japan for manga, anime, and the ever popular gravure girls.

It would be nice if a balanced agreement could be struck, but I don't have much hope for that. Most likely the content will be moved behind walled-gardens to subscriber-only areas and locked down.

[script23]

There is something to be said about the profits of the media companies.

Why do we have to pay hundreds of dollars a month to watch TV, and still have to watch commercials.

XM and Sirius are satelite radio companies. Most of their channels have no commercials because you pay for the subscription.

I pay over $100 a month to watch DirectTV, and still have to watch commercials, but if I wanted to download it to my computer for watching later; I would be breaking the law.

I buy a CD and can't rip it to MP3! The CD's should be like $5 instead of $14.98 and they should replace them for free if they get scratched.

Just my opinion.