Rokuga Net

[drainer at mpinet.net]

 A few years ago there was a similar service offered for Brazilian
expatriates living in America. This was before the advent of Tivo or
compression such as DiVX, so the copying was limited to tape. The premise
was that the organizers recorded the week's events from Globo
broadcasting -- prime time news, variety shows (specials), the weekend news
program, and the major drama of the week. They also made special tapes with
only drama series (novelas). The distribution was initially held through
restaurants, small shops, cafes, and the like, and the tapes were acquired
by the casual viewer through rental.

It proved to be a good idea and the demand was high, to the point where the
organizers even started to add their own little news program to the tapes
and relied on the advertising of local businesses. Once word got out to
Globo they immediately sought to seize control of the production and took it
upon themselves to charge distribution fees and other assessments to the
producers of these tapes. The system lived on for another year, until Globo
established a channel on Dish Network (they had been speculating the idea
and this was the confirmation that they needed), with another Brazilian
broadcaster following their path.

I bring this up because if Rokuga has attracted enough attention to be
brought in court then maybe NHK and the other networks should take a look at
their earning potential through licensing and distributorship rights. It
might drive Rokuga out of business, but in the long run, it can benefit the
customers, as it could possibly bring about a better line up in programming
overseas. The NHK lineup in America (offered through Dish Network) currently
costs $25 a month.


-da


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aaron Gerow" <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
To: "KineJapan" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 2:33 PM
Subject: Rokuga Net


> It seems that people went off to KC4 in Montreal (thanks to everyone at
> McGill for the good time) and forgot about the list! Keep those mails
> coming--those at KC4, please send the list some reports.
>
> Here's one bit of news from before KC4 that I didn't have time to
> mention:
>
> A Tokyo district court issued a temporary restraining order against a
> company called Rokuga Net which has been offering a service to Japanese
> living abroad that copies TV programs digitally and sends them abroad.
> NHK and five of the commercial stations in Tokyo asked for a
> restraining order until the case can be brought to court, arguing that
> the service is a violation of copyright.
>
> I actually had heard of Rokuga Net before, having investigated it after
> moving to the States. Their rather clever way of getting around
> copyright problems (they thought) was this: the company would sell
> subscribers a computer with a TV tuner and place it in their Tokyo
> office. The subscriber could then instruct their computer from abroad
> to record programs of their choice and Rokuga Net, for a fee, would
> help with the data transmission. Their argument was that since the
> computer was the property of the subscriber, it was equivalent to a
> personal VCR recorder and the service itself was no different from
> paying someone to record something on your own VCR in Japan and send it
> to your home abroad. The law, they argued, allows this kind of personal
> use of copied material.
>
> Since this was a temporary order, the court may not have giving any
> reasoning for its decision, but the case itself does have large
> implications regarding not only the digitial recording and distribution
> of moving images, but also one's personal rights to record or copy
> material. Let's wait and see what the final decision is.
>
> Aaron Gerow
> KineJapan owner
>
> Assistant Professor
> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
> Yale University
>
> For list commands, send "information kinejapan" to
> listserver at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Kinema Club: http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/Markus/Welcome.html
>