The discussion regarding anti-piracy measures reaches the core

■The discussion regarding anti-piracy measures reaches the core  

This was the third session of the conference to review anti-piracy measures.

The agenda was the circulation of legitimate versions and a review of the related measures up to that point, as well as measures by various foreign countries.

First, information on the status of existing measures was shared, such as police supervision, deletion requests, domain cessation requests, measures against advertisements, filtering, as well as education and awareness.

 It was reported that:

○As Mangamura and Anitube had been shut down, and measures to stop advertisements from being published had gone into full speed, the sales of legitimate versions were recovering

○People’s awareness of piracy had increased, and access to other piracy sites had significantly decreased as well

According to a survey by Dwango, 62% thought blocking access to these sites via legal measures was necessary, while 20% thought it was unnecessary. This result showed that a majority of netizens support blocking as well.

How should we process this?

According to a survey in 49 countries by JPNIC, which manages Internet resources, 71% had implemented blocking, of which 45% aimed it at copyright violations. This is more than the 37% that targeted pornography and the 33% that targeted crime and drugs.

A report was given by the Agency for Cultural Affairs on measures in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Canada. All countries had legal measures that provided for the deletion of pirated content; Europe had blocking, while the U.S. and Canada did not. The U.S. had measures for domain seizure and bans on individuals connecting to the Internet, while the U.K, France, Germany, and Canada did not.

The situation is that the systems vary.

The temperature was 35 degrees, and the air-conditioner in the room had broken down, so the conference heated up.

There was a confrontation between the opinions that blocking was effective and that it was not effective. There was also a confrontation between opinions about the government’s emergency measures. Some had the view that the government should change its policies based on majority rule; however, this conference is not a legislative organ, and even if a majority could be obtained within it, it would have no effect. As a result, it was decided to listen to the knowledge of the committee members and record it in the minutes, and end the meeting there.

The discussion is becoming more and more intense.