Come October, YouTube Could Be Outlawed In Japan

[kai_desu 340]

Source:

http://kotaku.com/5920140/come-october-dont-use-youtube-in-japan

While the Japanese public watched a cult terrorist get arrested, its leaders in government quietly made a move that could make watching YouTube illegal in Japan…

SOPA and PIPA are still rather fresh in people's memories. For those of you who don't know what SOPA and PIPA are, and yet are tech savvy enough to check our site, you've obviously been hiding under a rock the better half of last year (and can easily use the Google or some other search engine to research and get yourself up to date on how close the US got to a very terrible thing), or you're just browsing the internet for porn and stumbled on here by accident. Either way, you're either smart enough to already know (or if not, look up by yourself) pretty much all you need to know, or you're hopelessly clueless, in which case I really don't think I can help you in the limited space I have...

Anyways, SOPA and its evil twin PIPA were shelved indefinitely back in January thanks to the heroic level of protest by the public in the US. Sadly, other countries are not faring so well. Japan has recently passed a stricter revision to its copyright laws making, among other things, the download of illegally uploaded materials punishable by a prison sentence of less than 2 years and/or a fine of up to ¥2,000,000 (US$25,106).

While some could argue that this is a step in the right direction for Japan, which for the longest time had been fairly lax in the area of illegal downloading, some finer points of the revision are raising eyebrows. For one, while the Japanese media was churning over the capture of the last Aum cult member, (in fact almost the moment the story broke) the House of Representatives quietly passed the revision with virtually no coverage and almost no public announcement, leaving some to question the coincidental timing. Second, the revision was rushed through and passed without council or discussion. Members of the Ministry of Education who could potentially place a vote against the revision have been switched out so there is no opposition in place. Of the public, the only major group of people who are aware of what is going on are the 2-channel using sub-culturalites, a group often spoken of by the mass media as social outcasts and potential criminals and as such does not have much political swaying power in the public eye.

As to the actual effects of the revision, attorney at law, Toshimitsu Dan recently spoke on what Japan can look for in the future.

The Effects:

1. Ripping and copying of copy-protected and encoded materials like DVDs and games is no longer considered "for personal use" and is punishable.

2. The sale of software and hardware that circumvents copy protection and access protections is forbidden.

3. The intentional download of illegally uploaded materials is now punishable.

Basically, according to Toshimitsu Dan, video sites like YouTube and Nico Nico Douga that download temporary data to your computer will potentially be targets for regulation in Japan. That, and/or anybody who uses those sites could face prison time. Not only that, but thanks to the arbitrary wording of the revision that leaves it wide open for abuse by the authorities, the law can even affect Japanese citizens outside the borders of Japan. Even a Japanese citizen in America who watches a video on YouTube could potentially be a target for criminal proceedings.

While not nearly as destructive or far-reaching as SOPA could potentially have been, the new copyright law revisions were born of the same mindset of a recording industry attempting to throw out the baby with the bathwater because they can't figure out the intricacies and complexity of modern day plumbing. Sadly, the Japanese public is not as well-informed or vocal as in the US. Come October 1st when the revision will come into effect, we can probably expect a string of arrests. *sigh*

This is madness. Why is every country jumping on the "ban everything" bandwagon?

[The Bread Wolf 231]

Why is every country jumping on the "ban everything" bandwagon?

Because they can.

These decisions have been made by people who can afford buying every musical release they want, thus they can not view the matter objectively.

Though also some people are just pretty much assholes and they don't even try to buy releases they could afford because "they can download it free online".

[Slsr 207]

Wow, I guess these text seem to always be about so called "worst case scenarios" though, I just don't really see as radical change happening as mentioned in post but still it even being possibility is too much -___-...

[Champ213 1858]

Wow, I guess these text seem to always be about so called "worst case scenarios" though, I just don't really see as radical change happening as mentioned in post

Yeah, some commentors get overly alarmist with things like these. Obviously the chances of someone going to prison for watching a Youtube video are pretty much zero.

Same with Youtube being banned as a whole. The truth is, the driving forces behind these laws, (ie. parts of the entertainment industry) don't actually want services like Youtube etc. banned - they just want to press out more money from them. They don't want them banned because they actually profit from them, and they know it. But they're greedy and want to profit more.

For example, puplishers of newspapers have been pressing for a law here that would mean a page like Google News has to pay the publishers for posting the titles and snippets of their online articles, since it's their creative work. Which obviously sounds like a major facepalm. Every fool can see that the publishers profit from sites like Google News because they get thousands of hits directed from them. Why would they want to have it banned? Answer: they don't. They just want to milk them (basically, they're asking to get payed for the free advertising that Google News does for them. Ingenious plan, isn't it?)

I'm really hoping that Google just says "Screw you", and pulls the links to all publishers that complain. At the moment, the puplishers seem to gamble that Google doesn't want to risk a confrontation and just pays up. But if Google doesn't and just removed their pages from the index - believe me, they would be crawling back within days (a similar thing happened in Belgium already).

And if Youtube decided to pull the plug on its japanese service tomorrow you can expect a LOT of back-peddeling and "We didn't mean it THAT way!".

Laws like these are all launched by an industry that has completely missed out on the digital revolution, and that is now desperately trying to get a share back of it from those companies that actually adapted to the new means of communication. They don't want to trample down the cake - they're trying to get a bigger share of it for themselves by the force of law.

[Zeus 7997]

I've got nothing more to add in terms of explanation: Champ nailed it perfectly.

Although now that the story has gotten word out, I expect some of the more ambiguous or alarming parts of the law to be redacted or modified to be less severe. Politicians have a habit of making laws sound general so they can be applied for more circumstances but when it comes to the Internet and technology, the laws are just too general.

[sai 868]

The problem with these laws are that they are indeed (like Zess stated) too general. What will be illegal and what not? Is it the job of the government to fill this in, or will the court have the final decision? If a court gets confronted with these kind of laws, it will most probably develop into a less general law as they will probably fill in some things that are unclear. When you look at it with an open mind, it's not a good idea at all either. Both for the people, Japan's economy and the Japanese court. Imagine getting these kind of cases in front of you daily, and it's up to you to decide whether a specific case is applicable or not. With such a wide law, the government HAS to make it less general, it's impossible.

[Yasupon 18]

Wow, I guess these text seem to always be about so called "worst case scenarios" though, I just don't really see as radical change happening as mentioned in post

Yeah, some commentors get overly alarmist with things like these. Obviously the chances of someone going to prison for watching a Youtube video are pretty much zero.

Same with Youtube being banned as a whole. The truth is, the driving forces behind these laws, (ie. parts of the entertainment industry) don't actually want services like Youtube etc. banned - they just want to press out more money from them. They don't want them banned because they actually profit from them, and they know it. But they're greedy and want to profit more.

For example, puplishers of newspapers have been pressing for a law here that would mean a page like Google News has to pay the publishers for posting the titles and snippets of their online articles, since it's their creative work. Which obviously sounds like a major facepalm. Every fool can see that the publishers profit from sites like Google News because they get thousands of hits directed from them. Why would they want to have it banned? Answer: they don't. They just want to milk them (basically, they're asking to get payed for the free advertising that Google News does for them. Ingenious plan, isn't it?)

I'm really hoping that Google just says "Screw you", and pulls the links to all publishers that complain. At the moment, the puplishers seem to gamble that Google doesn't want to risk a confrontation and just pays up. But if Google doesn't and just removed their pages from the index - believe me, they would be crawling back within days (a similar thing happened in Belgium already).

And if Youtube decided to pull the plug on its japanese service tomorrow you can expect a LOT of back-peddeling and "We didn't mean it THAT way!".

Laws like these are all launched by an industry that has completely missed out on the digital revolution, and that is now desperately trying to get a share back of it from those companies that actually adapted to the new means of communication. They don't want to trample down the cake - they're trying to get a bigger share of it for themselves by the force of law.

You're so right. Great post.

[usuxorz 30]

If Japan actually did ban youtube, we'd lose out on a lot of awesome cat videos. ;_; (I really don't have anything to add to the conversation, can you tell? lol)

[Number Girl 48]

I hate 2012.

[The Libertine 2]

hmmm.. I live in Japan and this is quite concerning. But I doubt it will touch youtube much in the end. However it might be the end of some of the CD rental stores and illegal downloaders might be punished quite heavily from now on.. >_