Digital Shoplifting From Bookstores?

ipandithurts writes "According to a report from Tokyo via IOL, Japanese publishers have launched a campaign to stop 'digital shoplifters.' These 'digital shoplifters' are using cellphones to photograph magazine pages in bookstores, rather than buying them. 'Digital shoplifting is becoming a big problem as camera-equipped mobile handsets are spreading fast and their quality is improving greatly,' said Kenji Takahashi, an official at the Japan Magazine Publishers Association. Will entry into a bookstore soon include a 'cell-phone patdown?'"

Re:sounds like a big hassle

[BJH]

Well, no, there aren't.
There are a very few bookshops like that in central Tokyo, but otherwise, the floorspace is too valuable to be wasted on things like coffee bars or chairs.

Re:That's One Thing

[BJH]

Unfortunately, your simple solution doesn't allow for the fact that an average bookstore in Tokyo could have half a dozen 10-foot racks packed with magazines. They're not going to be able to put them all behind the counter...

Re:Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

the problem is not the cellphone half of the new devices.. these phones have digital cameras built in. you can't jam a digital camera.. it doesn't need a signal. i don't think we'll see stores installing EMP cannons anytime soon. but even then, it's just: power off, power on, *snap*.

i think the publishers are seeing this as an analog to movie pirates with camcorders.. but i doubt it could ever be that much of a problem.

and anyway, if i want to read a magazine and not buy it, i go the public library.

Re:cell phone camera resolution

[BJH]

Don't bet on it - the latest cellphones in Japan have 1.3 megapixel cameras, and it won't be long before that breaks 2 or 3 megapixels.

Re:sounds like a big hassle

[agendi]

For those that live outside North America, the coffeeshop in a bookstore idea isn't very common. It is becoming more common in Australia, but unless you are in a large chain, it is rare.

a little info on magazine selling in japan

[lingqi]

Okay, where to start:

1) magazines are insanely priced here in Japan. A general purpose one (say, equiv to cosmo) would be 700 yen (think 6 dollars). A specialty one, say an hobby related RC magazine is a whopping 1,800 yen (about 15 dollars)*

2) generally all stores you can go in and read, but you have to stand there and do it - that has never prevented hordes of people from standing by the magazine racks and browsing through everything; japanese people are usually very accustomed to be on their legs, many having to stand on the train for commute and walk between the trainstation and their destinations

3) Interestingly, the porn sections in japan are not shrinkwrapped - and I do wonder if this is where the digital shoplifting takes place more than anywhere else: while it's fine and good to look at naked ladies standing next to an obasan browsing through summer-cooking recipies, where you really want to be is the privacy of your home with such magazines (let's be realistic here). So I can imagine that being a good candidate for such "theft." Of course, the obasan next to you might be stealing recipies too, but frankly the phones don't have THAT good of resolution - text won't come out.

now - you can stand and browse magazines ANYWHERE, including convenience stores (which, coincidentally, have adult sections - so if you suddenly have an urge to see pictures of naked woman at 3am, 7-E is the place to go), but nowhere I know have sit-down drinking coffee type.

side note: the "adult section" should probably include PC games section, which, as far as I can tell, is by far occupied with hentai-themed games than anything else. But none of them is censored or in a separate area. stupid american "decency laws"

other side note: the real popular stuff, they usually shrink wrap - this include popular comics, and game-hintguides, etc...

* last note: there is no such thing as subscription, or subscription discounts in japan: you can get a subscription, but then the book seller where you get it from would just mail you the said magazines on an interval and charge you cover price plus postage (ok maybe 5% discount). silly, eh? no wonder people "steal" the content.

Re:japan: expensive stuff vs. cheap stuff

[BJH]

Just to clarify a few of these...
($US1 = 118 JPY, 100 JPY = $US0.84)

books / magazines
Japanese paperbacks vary between 350 and 650 yen. Hardback novels are usually 1200 to 2500 yen.

CDs / DVDs
CDs are 2000-3000 yen, although the cheap 'collections' are usually 1000-1200 yen (older artists). DVDs vary between 2500 and 7500 yen (higher end is for things like anime).

movie tickets
1500-1800 yen.

gasoline
90-100 yen per litre.

fruits
Depends where you buy, but a punnet of strawberries in season is 200-350 yen, apples are 100-200 yen each, 1Kg of oranges is 300-500 yen.

rice
Don't really know - I get all my rice from relatives (farmers).

vitamins
Dunno, don't buy them.

stationary
That's what work is for, right? ;)

postage (delivery fee, let's say)
~80 yen for a postcard, ~100 yen for a letter. I find shipping costs worse - 5000+ yen to ship a server from one side of Tokyo to the other is a ripoff.

beer
130-150 yen for a 300ml can of 'happoshu', which is basically beer but brewed in a way which excepts it from the taxes on beer. Real beer is 200-300 yen for a 300ml can. Of course, buying in bulk reduces the cost by quite a bit.

"Cheap" stuff...

cigarettes
I don't smoke, but quite a few friends bitch that Japanese cigarettes are expensive (250-300 yen for a box of 20).

low-quality sake (rice-wine)
Not necessarily low quality; quite decent sake can be had for 1200-1800 yen for an isshobin (1.8 litre bottle).

RC parts (that are made in japan)*
Dunno...

Book Pricing in the Thirdworld

[khalido]

Here in Pakistan, foreign books and magazines start at 10 dollars (no matter what the actual price) and go up to 50 dollars. Local books are priced from 5 to 25 dollars. Here, a middle class salaried person makes around a 100 dollars or less a month. He/she has to support a family. You can imagine that books are the last thing they are every going to buy. Even for the well off, buying a book is something which has to be planned in advance, budgeted, then finally bought. Since we have low literacy rates here, there isn't much local content of high quality available. Magazines are one thing, but as long as books are priced beyond your typical consumer, there is something wrong with the business model. If the costs have been covered in the first world then there should be cheaper priced editions available in the rest of the world. The problem is not that playboy is too expensive, it is that technical books and magazines are priced well beyond reason. Our govt. is too blame also as they do not do anything at all about getting books into the country, providing translations etc. Anyways my point was, over here our main source of new content is Piracy. either someone gets one copy and reprints it here, or they get a scanned copy from a agent/pirater abroad etc. etc. So the more piracy going on the more stuff we get to read. The choice isn't about pirating or buying. It's about being able to read the damn things. Pakistan has a developing IT industry, and 99% of the students don't have enough money to buy ONE copy of a typical academic book per year.