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Cellphones Music Privacy

Japan's Cell Phones May Get DRM, At Music Industry Behest 189

An anonymous reader writes "The Japanese Music Industry is currently in talks with Japanese cell phone providers to introduce a new anti-piracy system in all cell phones in Japan. This new system would make DRM software mandatory in all cell phones; this would connect to a DRM server on the Internet whenever the cell phone user would try to play a song. The song would only play if the response of the server would be positive. Otherwise no song would be played. The system raises several questions and concerns that the Financial Times article did not address. These include ripped legally bought music and music that has been released under a CC license or similar. Who would pay for the costs of the DRM checks, and what would happen if no connection could be established?"
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Japan's Cell Phones May Get DRM, At Music Industry Behest

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  • Re:No connection? (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14, 2009 @02:41AM (#29410801)

    In Japan cellphones work well anywhere, even on the subway. Same in Korea.

  • by Imrik ( 148191 ) on Monday September 14, 2009 @02:58AM (#29410891) Homepage

    They wouldn't be using your money without your permission, by trying to play the song you'd be giving them permission. At least that's how their lawyers would probably argue it.

  • Re:No connection? (Score:3, Informative)

    by KamuZ ( 127113 ) on Monday September 14, 2009 @03:11AM (#29410945) Homepage
    Not true. In the subway you lose the signal between stations.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14, 2009 @03:42AM (#29411027)

    Your Matrix analogy is backwards. The blue pill lets you live in a gilded cage, the red pill lets you live a free life in reality.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14, 2009 @04:21AM (#29411171)

    I use user-agent-switcher, never heard of prefbar, anyway your crack (well not yours, its pretty well known) worked flawlessly. it isnt even necessary to hide cookies. a simple Googlebot 2.1 worked for me.

  • Re:It's Not Already? (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14, 2009 @04:21AM (#29411173)

    Don't know about Japan but around here it's best to get your phone from a 3rd party, i.e. not the provider. Provider brand their phones and restrict the hell out of them to maximise revenue. If you to a phone contract reseller that subsidises unbranded phones, you get the original phone with all its capabilities.

  • by rabiddeity ( 941737 ) on Monday September 14, 2009 @04:28AM (#29411189) Homepage

    Some clubs faced retroactive fines in the tens of thousands of Yen and were forced to close down.

    Don't mean to break your stride, but you do realize that ten thousand yen is less than US$100, right?

  • MPAA - RIAA Scum (Score:2, Informative)

    by im just cannonfodder ( 1089055 ) on Monday September 14, 2009 @06:33AM (#29411591) Homepage
    lets not for get who is actually behind the MPAA - RIAA, these are the companies that need to be targeted and boycotted into changing their ways, purchase only 2nd hand media, & avoid all sony products as much as possible, why allow these scum suits to dictate hardware/software DRM anymore.

    Name and shame the companies as all the **AA trade group name is for is to protect the corporate globalists gatekeepers from bad press.

    RIAA, CRIA, SOUNDEXCHANGE, BPI, IFPI, Ect:

    # Sony BMG Music Entertainment
    # Warner Music Group
    # Universal Music Group
    # EMI

    MPAA, MPA, FACT, AFACT, Ect:

    # Sony Pictures
    # Warner Bros. (Time Warner)
    # Universal Studios (NBC Universal)
    # The Walt Disney Company
    # 20th Century Fox (News Corporation)
    # Paramount Pictures Viacom--(DreamWorks owners since February 2006)



    ========

    If Sony payola (google it) wasn't already bad enough to destroy all indie competition already you have this scam.


    Is it justified to steal from thieves? READ ON.


    RIAA Claims Ownership of All Artist Royalties For Internet Radio
    http://slashdot.org/articles/07/04/29/0335224.shtml [slashdot.org]

    "With the furor over the impending rate hike for Internet radio stations, wouldn't a good solution be for streaming internet stations to simply not play RIAA-affiliated labels' music and focus on independent artists? Sounds good, except that the RIAA's affiliate organization SoundExchange claims it has the right to collect royalties for any artist, no matter if they have signed with an RIAA label or not. 'SoundExchange (the RIAA) considers any digital performance of a song as falling under their compulsory license. If any artist records a song, SoundExchange has the right to collect royalties for its performance on Internet radio. Artists can offer to download their music for free, but they cannot offer their songs to Internet radio for free ... So how it works is that SoundExchange collects money through compulsory royalties from Webcasters and holds onto the money. If a label or artist wants their share of the money, they must become a member of SoundExchange and pay a fee to collect their royalties.'"

    http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/24/141326/870 [dailykos.com]
  • Re:No connection? (Score:3, Informative)

    by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Monday September 14, 2009 @07:04AM (#29411751) Journal
    Given that there are incredibly strong cultural taboos in Japan against using a mobile phone on public transport (you should see the stares people get when they try), I would be very surprised if the networks had bothered investing in infrastructure underground.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14, 2009 @07:52AM (#29411923)

    Actually, for most of the 1990s/early 2000s, personal computers took a distant second to mobile phones/PDAs in Japan for personal internet access. The degree of dominance changed while I was living there, but as late as 2007, most people people were still using their mobiles/cells for SMS/text messaging, email, and searching for information. It was just a very different set of expectations about what form data needed to be in to move to/from individuals.

    Most net cafes in Japan evolved from "manga-kissa": cafes where people could get a drink and read magazines in a semi-secluded booth for a bit. Rather than a single room with 15-40 PCs wedged into it, net cafes in larger cities in Japan have evolved into places where a person can rent a little bit of privacy with added amenities. It's not uncommon for people to pay JPY1500 for a package that allows them to stay from 11PM to 6AM in a cubicle with access to magazines, comics, PS2/3 games, DVDs, a net-connected PC, reclining office chair, and access to a shower. But for a lot of people the net access is far less important than the chance to sit down in a little bit of privacy, and maybe get cleaned up before they go back to the outside world.

    Aaaaaanyway, the point is that different people have different expectations of how tech and data should be presented, interacted with and controlled.

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