[IP] Digital Shoplifting in Japan

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Nathan Cochrane <ncochrane@theage.fairfax.com.au>
Reply-To: ncochrane@theage.fairfax.com.au
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2003 17:36:25 +1000
To: "Dave Farber (E-mail)" <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Digital Shoplifting in Japan

Hi Dave

>From the "It Had to Happen Eventually" department, people are using their
digital camera-equipped mobile phones to take happy snaps of images in
magazines in Japan.

The BBC reports bookstores are livid that people would take photos of their
pictures and send them on.

The BBC notes:
The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association says the practice is
"information theft" and it wants it stopped.

It is the kind of thing that most Japanese young women wouldn't think twice
about doing.

They might spot a new hairstyle or a new dress in a glossy fashion magazine
and they want to know what their friends think - so they take a quick snap
with their mobile phone camera and send everybody a picture.

But the publishers of those magazines feel they are being cheated out of
valuable sales.



Frankly, I don't get what the big deal is. Cameras have been attached to
devices such as Nintendo's GameBoy for years. Cheap pen-style digital
cameras have been around for several years and the new Canon IXUS mini
cameras and their ilk deliver print-quality images in something not much
bigger than a matchbox. Why is it every time there is a slightly new crimp
in an existing technology or process, we have these Chicken Little claims?

I think the publishers are missing a great opportunity to encourage people
to publicise the contents of the magazines thereby driving sales.

Is it really any different than if I look at a picture with my own,
infinitely higher-resolution biological eye camera? I don't think so.

Another typical example of corporate over-reaction that will drive a bigger
wedge between them and their customers, who miss the days when "they were
always right".

MORE:
http://bilskirnir.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_bilskirnir_archive.html#1057217346
52407051

-
Nathan Cochrane
Deputy IT Editor
:Next:
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.next.theage.com.au


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