[January 23, 2010] Illegal downloading of music still rampant in Japan as punishment for copyright violations rare Tweet TOKYO, Jan 23, 2010 (The Yomiuri Shimbun - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- Last April, a 13-year-old middle school girl in Tokyo was told by a friend about a Web site that offers free music and image downloads _ without the approval of copyright holders. "You can download cellphone ringtones there for free," the girl said. The girl was able to access the site after following her friend's instructions, finding a selection of an artist's songs she had wanted to use as ringtones. "Almost all of the songs we want are on the site," she said. She has since used the site to obtain most of her ringtones. Each of her six closest friends has a different song assigned to play when they call her phone. These songs are usually switched out every few months. Normally, it costs several hundred yen per song download. The girl said she knows she has been doing something she should not, but, as she put it, "All my friends use the site and my phone bill would be higher if I paid the copyright fee for each song." The revised Copyright Law that went into effect Jan. 1 in Japan aims at clamping down on the rampant downloading of music and images on the Internet that have not been permitted by the copyright holders. But its effectiveness has been questioned because there are no punishments for violations. Even before the Copyright Law was revised, the copying and distribution of music and images were banned unless permitted by copyright holders. Under the revised law, downloading music and images onto mobile phones or personal computers is stipulated as illegal if done knowing it was infringing copyrights. An official at the Cultural Affairs Agency's copyright section expressed hope that the revised law "will help restrain people's desire for downloading, and reduce illegal distribution (of songs and images)." But, given the difficulty in identifying who is doing the downloading, punitive provisions are not stipulated. This has left many people skeptical about the effectiveness of the revised law. Making such downloading illegal, however does open the door for copyright holders to seek compensatory damages. But the right to damages is allowed only against such vicious acts as a downloader refusing to stop despite repeated warnings. A Tokyo housewife who admitted to using an illegal music distribution site for three years said she has been given coupons in exchange for music downloads by answering questions in ads for the site. She said she learned about the site from friends and at first used it casually because, as she thought to herself, it was "available free of charge." She has downloaded 70 songs to date. "I know such downloading has been outlawed since this month," she said. "But I may use the site again if it's still available." Masaki Suenaga, a public relations official for the Recording Industry Association of Japan, warned against illegal downloading. "Sales of products are an indispensable revenue source for music or image producers. If they fail to gain due rewards because of the illegal distribution of their products, it will deal a great blow to them and lead to a drop in quality," Suenaga said. ___ (c) 2010, The Yomiuri Shimbun. Visit the Daily Yomiuri Online at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm/ Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]