New Way to see J-TV in US-A

[Aaron Gerow]

>  I thought this had been around for the past year or so. Wasn't that 
> company
> under litigation?

The company that lost in court was Rokuga Net (though I believe they 
appealed). This is a different company, but it will be interesting to 
see if it can get around the problems Rokuga Net faced. Personally, I 
would not sign up for any such service until litigation has reached 
some kind of conclusion. Rokuga Net thought they could clear copyright 
problems by having the subscribers buy a computer server in Japan that 
Rokuga Net only managed--what could be the problem of someone sending 
himself a video file over the internet? But the court nixed even that. 
Rokuraku looks even more suspicious because they rent you the unit in 
Japan (though you have the option to buy if you want).

Given the way copyright interpretations are getting very strict in 
Japan, I would doubt this would be allowed. But let's wait and see.


Aaron Gerow
Film Studies and East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University