10 comments

  • devsda9 hours ago
    > The problem with sites that extract text from movies and other content is that they reduce people’s desire to pay a fair price for content, which can lead to people not seeing the official full-length movies, causing great damage to rights holders

    The article doesn't use the word "subtitles" so its not clear what they provided. Did they create subtitles in another language like english or just a movie plot (elaborate) summary ?

    Considering Japan has no fair use exception, doesn't movie reviews also reduce people's desire to pay fair price.

    • sirn9 hours ago
      What they provide is a text transcription of every words spoken (文字起こし) accompanying by a screenshot of the relevant scenes (in its original language). It’s less like elaborated summaries and more among the line of "posting a closed caption along with a relevant screenshot"
      • crazygringo9 hours ago
        So you can read the movie like a comic book?

        That's actually... kinda cool.

        I can totally see how that should be copyright infringement (as opposed to just subtitle files).

        But at the same time, I'd really like to try "reading" a movie that way, just to see what it's like.

        • jfengel6 hours ago
          It was briefly a thing in the 1970s. They called it a "fotonovel", and similar names:

          https://www.allaboutthewaltons.com/merchandising/fotonovel.p...

          The Star Trek ones were particularly popular.

          • crazygringo6 hours ago
            That's wild! Thanks so much for sharing.
        • dxbydt7 hours ago
          > So you can read the movie like a comic book?

          people also enjoy the opposite experience. when my kid was 4-5, we watched these youtube videos which were just books. the camera hovered over a page of nursery rhymes, and the narrator would read them out loud. its fairly popular among immigrant parents who don’t speak good English but whose kids go to school in the us/uk etc. I wouldn’t know the meaning or how to pronounce several phrases in say Little Jack Horner sat in a corner etc. - so better to watch the book than read it.

          I also follow a journalist on twitter who makes these videos of the new york times. So instead of subscribing to the newspaper and reading it, I am watching the newspaper being read by this journalist, who then adds some color to the topic as well, so I know what to think about this topic.

        • exlurker8 hours ago
          Now that you mention it, I remember reading through the entire first script of of Alien from 1976[1], which was really cool. I now feel an urge to re-experience that.

          [1] http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/alien_early.html

    • SonOfLilit8 hours ago
      While there is no general doctrine of ‘fair use’ in Japan, there are some equivalent exemptions provided by the Copyright Act, such as:

      • quoting from and exploiting a work already made public fairly

      and to the extent justified by the purpose of the quotations;

      • private use, to a limited extent;

      • reproduction in libraries;

      • reproduction in school textbooks,schools and other educational institutions;

      • use for those with disabilities; and

      • reproduction for judicial proceedings.

      https://www.aplawjapan.com/archives/pdf/file/GettingtheDealT...

      I'd say a use by any other name is just as fair.

  • danadam8 hours ago
    > The problem with sites that extract text from movies and other content is that they reduce people’s desire to pay a fair price for content

    A bit strange to use "fair", which (to me) seems to be quite on a subjective side. Do people still think that the price is fair and only don't want to pay it? Or maybe some of them don't consider the price to be fair anymore :-)

    • kyleee4 hours ago
      Their definition of fair, of course. Your definition of fair may be illegal or at the very least immoral. Won’t you please think of the movie execs?
  • HPsquared10 hours ago
    It appears spoilers are actually illegal in Japan. I'm not sure how I feel about this.
    • robertlagrant9 hours ago
      Ugh. I wanted to find this out for myself!
    • sfmz8 hours ago
      Reminds me of NFL's copyrights claim: “Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited.”
    • rightbyte9 hours ago
      Do you mean spoiler used as some sort of harassment?

      Or can't you discuss movies?

      • chme9 hours ago
        > “The problem with sites that extract text from movies and other content is that they reduce people’s desire to pay a fair price for content, which can lead to people not seeing the official full-length movies, causing great damage to rights holders,” the anti-piracy group explains.

        So a bad critique of the movie, might also reduce people's desire to pay to see the movie. So with this kind of reasoning any information you give others about a movie (or other copyrightable work) could be problematic. Pretty strange stuff...

        • rightbyte8 hours ago
          Ye I read that. It is just that it is so absurd that I hardly believe it.

          I did some searching and I got no result from news orgs I recognized. But like, it seemed correct.

          Then again, if I remember correctly Nintendo tried to go after videos of people playing their games at some point. I guess it makes sense from that perspective.

  • timcobb9 hours ago
    Quite the non sequitur here lol:

    > The belief that somehow everything is free on the internet was widespread in the late 1990s. Sites were overwhelmingly free and if MP3 files were spotted by an alert surfer, it was almost considered rude not to download them, bandwidth permitting.

    • itronitron8 hours ago
      Nowadays it's sites collecting surfers' data.
  • iefbr1410 hours ago
    Makes me wonder, is imdb.com legal in Japan?
    • deafpolygon10 hours ago
      No, but IMDb.jp would be.
      • chgs8 hours ago
        What does .com do which .jp does not?
  • Kuinox9 hours ago
    Article removed the information that it's a spoiler website for some reason.
  • tlareng8 hours ago
    It is obvious that a new arms race was going to start after the introduction of "AI" content laundering machines. Be careful posting your "AI" generated summaries.
  • 8 hours ago
    undefined
  • matsemann10 hours ago
    [flagged]
  • passwordoops10 hours ago
    Aside from the fact this is japan, where there is no fair use, the men were "posting articles to a website as part of a conspiracy to unfairly generate advertising revenue."
    • sunflowerfly10 hours ago
      What makes it unfair?
      • passwordoops3 hours ago
        The fact that Japan is not the US, so your question is moot
      • romeros9 hours ago
        by profiting from another person's work.
        • cced9 hours ago
          Is that really unfair? Surely we can see that in capitalist societies, profiteering from other peoples work is one of the core tenants.
          • crazygringo9 hours ago
            The core tenet is that you've paid them for their work in order to profit off of it, in an exchange both parties have entered into freely.

            Not that you've used their work without paying.

            • cced4 hours ago
              So people transcribing audio/video content should be paying for the opportunity to do so? They are quite literally offering a service based on derivative work.

              Surely this is already ironed out, no? What are laws regarding transcriptions?

              • crazygringo1 hour ago
                No, they don't get to at all if they're creating something that takes away from sales of the original item.

                Yes this is ironed out. It's completely illegal, as it should be. No question about it.

          • left-struck9 hours ago
            That would still be unfair, just broadly accepted unfairness.
          • ben_w9 hours ago
            When it's unlawful, it's unfair — even when the law itself is unfair.
    • Hamuko9 hours ago
      Most countries don't have fair use. The US is very unique in that regard. And unfortunately, given how prelevant the US is on the Internet, a lot of people seem to be under the misconception that fair use is just some sort of a universal thing.
    • prmoustache10 hours ago
      allegedly.