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YouTube offers JASRAC an olive branch

YouTube offers JASRAC an olive branch

It was announced on 20 December that delegates from the online video portal, YouTube, have offered to meet representatives from several Japanese media firms concerned about the site’s history of infringement. YouTube executives are planning to fly out to Japan in response to a letter sent to the firm in early December by the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC). This followed an October emergency in which YouTube was forced to remove 30,000 files from its server following complaints from Japanese copyright holders.

Criticising what it saw as a ‘post first, remove later’ policy and a lack of proactive IP enforcement, JASRAC said in the letter:

‘Taking into account the current status of your service, we believe that your company should not just wait for rights owners to take the “Notice and Takedown” procedures but should bear the responsibility to prevent, in advance, copyright infringements such as illegal uploads and distributions, or to avoid those infringements.’

The letter recommended that YouTube should use an automatic scanning system that would flag up copyrighted material from among the site’s enormous intake. In the meantime, it asked the firm to undertake three provisional measures:

  • To place a distinct copyright warning on its homepage
  • To register all users providing uploads
  • To terminate the accounts of all users involved in the October crisis

Following YouTube’s acknowledgement of these points, the planned delegation shows that the site is keen to repair its standing with the Japanese media. The clash has surprised industry insiders, who thought that US firms would emerge as YouTube’s prime sources of complaint.

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