Tangpriest
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Youtube - General Information
Found this article on a random search for something else. I thought people here would be interested in the inforamtion:
YouTube" Web site has Japan's broadcasters in a tizzy
Since the end of last year, the number of Japanese Netizens visiting the "YouTube" site has gone through the roof. According to Shibuya-based Net Ratings, a firm that tracks Internet utilization, visitors leaped from 200,000 a month in December 2005 to 4.1 million by May 2006.
That latter figure correspondents for 9.68 percent of Japan's Internet users. Even more remarkably, the number of YouTube viewers in Japan, on a percentage basis, surpasses the 8.83 percent of visitors in the U.S.
"Considering that it's an English-language site, these figures are off the wall," Net Ratings President Masayuki Hagiwara tells Shukan Asahi (7/7).
Koichi Mizugami, who operates a site covering Internet trends called "All About IT Industries Trendwatch," attributes the site's popularity to its being full of stimulating visual contents, free, and easy to access using Japanese-language search engines.
YouTube was launched in February 2005 by three former employees of PayPal. The site's "Broadcast Yourself" video contents are uploaded, and shared, between the users. Contents originating from Japan run the gamut of clips of the very first "Doraemon" animated cartoon (about the misadventures of a blue robot cat) first broadcast back in 1979, to the 1985 knife murder of Toyota Shoji President Kazuo Nagano, a notorious swindler, who was slain on live TV by two self-professed members of a right-wing group, as several dozen Japanese reporters and photographers stood by and clinically recorded the action.
Another segment shows former AUM Supreme Truth "guru," and current death row inmate Shoko Asahara, appearing in a variety show on the NTV network, in which he told viewers he habitually washed his hair using baby shampoo. This was the same man, mind you, who ordered his minions to release toxic nerve gas on the Tokyo subway system in March 1995.
But Shukan Asahi was surprised to see that some of the YouTube contents was quite current. A video clip corresponding to one of the stories, carried on its pages just one week before, was being flaunted as "proof" that Liberal Democratic bigwig Shinzo Abe, the top contender to succeed Junichiro Koizumi as Japan's next prime minister this autumn, had sent a congratulatory cablegram to the Unification Church.
On another, er, note, YouTube viewers can also see, and hear, Larry King release gas from his posterior live on CNN.
The Japanese media, sensing its proprietary material is being illegally reproduced, appears to be swiftly abandoning its heretofore hands-off position toward YouTube. NHK recently contacted the site's operators to demand that a video clip of the children's song "Supu no Ekaki Uta" that had been broadcast on May 30 installment of the "Okasan to Issho" TV show, be removed.
Indeed, a perusal of YouTube now displays the words "This video has been removed at the request of copyright owner Japan Broadcasting Corporation because its content was used without permission" in red letters, enclosed within a red border.
However, the same video soon popped up on a different site, and NHK has been forced to play a game of hide-and-seek --- or perhaps blind man's bluff might be more descriptive --- with Web pirates.
"Piracy of web contents, both in Japan and abroad, has been increasing recently," an NHK spokesperson tells Shukan Asahi. "NHK devotes time to confirming these violations one by one, and requests their removal. Even if extra efforts are involved, we believe that it serves as a discreet means of preventing illegal use of program contents."
Japan's commercial channels are also becoming increasingly flustered by such purloining of images. A spokesman for the NTV network tells the magazine it is determined to go after offenders, even those operating outside Japan.
"It's practically impossible to track down all copyright offenders," a spokesman for the Fuji TV network tells the magazine. "Our hands are already full just with domestic violators."
One of Japan's top promoters of showbiz talent, Johnny's Jimusho, the office of Johnny Kitagawa, said it is mulling legal action to make sure its performer's rights are not infringed upon. A spokesman for the agency said it was determined to "root out" YouTube and similarly predatory web sites.
Still, tracking down violators is in some ways akin to hunting for a needle in the proverbial haystack. YouTube is said to receive some 35,000 new submissions per day.
If networks find it so annoying to see their lowbrow contents being recycled on the Web, perhaps the only solution will be for them to cease broadcasting it.
"Once, TV would broadcast a segment and that was the end of it," recalls a program director. "But now things have come to the point that anybody can watch things anytime and anywhere. This is creating a sense of alarm among the people on the production side and can be expected to impact on programming quality. To discourage lowbrow piracy, it might be better for us to try to improve, even slightly, the type of programs we air on a daily basis." (By Masuo Kamiyama, People's Pick contributor)
July 1, 2006
WaiWai stories are transcriptions of articles that originally appeared in Japanese language publications. The Mainichi Daily News cannot be held responsible for the contents of the original articles, nor does it guarantee their accuracy. Views expressed in the WaiWai column are not necessarily those held by the Mainichi Daily News or Mainichi Newspapers Co.
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대 한 민 국!
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7/4/2006, 6:25 am
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nchristi
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Re: Youtube - General Information
class blockquote Tangpriest wrote:
To discourage lowbrow piracy, it might be better for us to try to improve, even slightly, the type of programs we air on a daily basis." (By Masuo Kamiyama, People's Pick contributor)I don't understand this. How do improved programs discourage "lowbrow piracy," other than people will drop pirating the lowbrow and turn to pirating the better programs? Do they mean "highbrow" will be so boring nobody will want to pirate it? (Did I hear shooting oneself in one's foot?)
Thanks for the article, Tangpriest. The games have only just begun, I fear, with probably a handful of consumers here and there being singled out for examples of harsh punishment. Kinda like the college students in US who were sued for d/l-ing music.
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7/4/2006, 11:50 am
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smartaz
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I wondered about that too. I thought maybe I was missing a point somewhere. If the programing gets better won't more people want access to it? Or are they saying the crappier a show is, the more people will want it? Quite a dilemma. Produce high quality programs that no one wants or produce crap that people want so badly, they resort to piracy.
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7/4/2006, 2:31 pm
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Tangpriest
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Just a comment about piracy: It's ironic that a couple of other boards I follow who completely oppose buying bootleg dramas and films are promoting Youtube. Youtube is piracy...we are watching these shows and the companies that produce them don't collect a cent of our viewing. The result of purchasing bootlegs is the same. The original creators don't collect a cent. Same with downloading dramas....it's all piracy. What the producers of these programs probably need to catch on to is to make the legit dvds of shows much more accessible....making them cheaper and more quickly available to the general public. However, it may be too late as the very audiences who watch these shows are already used to watching them on their computers soon after the shows have aired.
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대 한 민 국!
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7/29/2006, 1:10 pm
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brad6
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Re: Youtube - General Information
Usually I am a very lawabiding person when it comes to D/l shows. However, I wonder if the TV people realise that after D/l, I have spent hundreds of dollars later on, buying those DVDs. If I didn't like them so much I would not buy them. I got a taste by D/l. they should either let the shows be available or they should make their DVDs less expensive and give a better description of the contents.
am I making sense here?? So hot in California. Brains a bit fried.
I love 'SMAP' and I absolutely adore Takuya Kimura. It is almost impossible to find their shows either on TV or on Computer or get the DVDs. Everything being ultra expensive of course.
I wonder how this group has lasted at the top for fifteen years. Kimura the top idol and a splendid actor also for fifteen years. I have not been able to find one of their weekly SMAP 'Bistro' TV shows for weeks. No way to buy any DVDs and so Johnny Office keeps shackles on what their talent can do. Fuji is just as controlling.
They really do bite off the nose to spite the face.
Peggy
PS I should point out that I don't D/l from Youtube. don't know how....
Last edited by brad6, 7/29/2006, 1:59 pm
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7/29/2006, 1:57 pm
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Tangpriest
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Yeah, I think about that....if Johnny wanted to tap into the market here, he'd probably make a lot more money (on top of the tons he makes from all the Johnny stuff that gets released in Japan). I don't think we can download from Youtube. They just provide the software to allow you to show video. There are other options cropping up out there, like DailyMotion. I have always bought legit dvds of movies, but when I got into Japanese dramas, buying the bootlegs from ebay or downloading using a bittorent is the only way to have access to them. I do buy the legit versions of the korean dramas..
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대 한 민 국!
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7/30/2006, 8:49 am
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curly carrot
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Re: Youtube - General Information
it would seem more profitable from all aspects if the producers of these Asian films would spend their money on hiring translators to esub their dramas, programs etc. and make them more readily and affordably available to the general public than spending the time and money to track down the pirates, etc.
I am among the hundreds who have been sadly "burned" by the very poor, e-subbed copies of my favorite dramas and that type of unprofessional work is very dishonoring and disrespectfult to the original writers, producers, directors and actors of the dramas.
Question: is it true that more asian contents are available on youtube, dailymotion, etc as opposed to the american content? if so, I wonder why..
are many american dailies available on you tube? I wouldn't watch them anyway but was just curious.
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4/2/2007, 9:02 am
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hyunkyu
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Re: Youtube - General Information
do you guys know about video downloader?
well its used on firefox and with video downloader and another program you can download videos from youtube.
its great.
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4/15/2007, 8:06 pm
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