Mark James Russell

Books, blog and other blather

Category: Korean IP

No IP Piracy Here, Ye’ Scurvy Dogs

May 3, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Intellectual Property is a weird issue. On one hand, I believe that information wants to be free and that, given convenient and appropriately priced options, people will pay for digital content. On the other hand, having pirated DVDs and software for sale on every major corner and subway station, right out in the open, is just nuts. I mean, many of the guys take requests, for pete’s sake. So I guess I kind of feel like Korea is at once too harsh with its digital IP enforcement and way too lenient.

Which is why I do not at all understand the United States Trade Representative removing South Korea from its Piracy Watch List for the first time since 1989. (Taiwan was removed, too). You can read the full report here (see page 10 in particular). At least the report says that Korea could return to the list if progress does not continue.

Meanwhile, Canada is on the Priority Watch List? Really?

Btw, if you scan down to page 35, the USTR gives a list of the world’s most Notorious Markets. So if you plan to do any traveling, check out that section to find out all the best places to do your shopping.

Copyrights and Wrongs and Rants

May 21, 2008 / / 2 Comments

It has been a rather copyrighty couple of weeks for me, with the Korea Copyright Forum, the Seoul Digital Forum and the International Publishers Association Congress in Seoul and the USTR keeping Korea on its IP watchlist (sorry but I am too tired and lazy to link to all of those).

And throughout those “fun” events, a common message coming out of them was the need for governments to enforce copyright protections. Sometimes the message was nuanced and interesting (eg, Ted Cohen); sometimes it was the usual heavy-handed “arrest-them-all” rant (eg, Sumner Redstone).

(And once it was “Piracy is good,” when will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas spoke at the Seoul Digital Forum. Luckily, it was the day after Redstone’s rant, or else the ancient billionaire might have had a stroke).

While I do agree that there needs to be some respect for copyrights, listening to all of that corporate self-righteousness got me thinking, what are the corporations’ responsibilities for respecting copyrights?

Korea has shown pretty clearly that people are more than willing to spend money on music and other digital entertainment, as long as that entertainment is convenient, reliable and reasonably priced.

They spent money even when the competition is “free.” Because free really is not free at all. You hope the music file you are downloading works, but it might not. Or it might have a virus or some other nasty bit of code in it. And figuring how to make the bittorrent or emule or whatever work is not much fun. The “free” options are a pain in the butt, and that is a real cost, just like money.

Despite all the whining about Korea’s piracy problems, last year Koreans spent over $300 million on online and mobile music. Combined with $80 million in CD sales and you have a number pretty consistent with music sales for the past 10 years. (Sure the music labels complain that they are not getting their fare share, but the important point is that consumers are still spending as much money as ever).

Cory Doctorow, Radiohead, NIN and plenty of others have shown that making your stuff available on the Internet does not hurt their value. If anything, availability and accessibility enhances value.

My main point is, what responsibility do the various entertainment companies (big and small) around the world have to make sure their content is available? In Korea, it is pitiful how few movies and TV shows are available here, whether on DVD or online. Even programs that I know have been subtitled in Korean.

How can companies expect customers to respect their copyrights when they do not provide access to their copyrighted contents?

In the Internet age, people anywhere in the world have the ability to find, download and watch/listen to just about anything (as long as the Internet connection is good enough). The whole idea that you can divide up the world into pieces and control when each area gets access to something is so antiquated and backward.

Until the media companies start making a serious effort to make their contents available to me here in Korea (and to people in general around the world), I am not going to lose much sleep about them losing money to “piracy.”

Yongsan Crackdown?

April 12, 2007 / / 8 Comments

Had a bit of a surprise when I went to Yongsan Electronics Market today. When I walked down the main road, where all the pirate DVD vendors are, I discovered a distinct lack of pirate vendors. Instead, I found this:

(Sorry for the crappy quality… I only had my mobile phone camera with me)

There were no vendors at all on the street. Not anyone selling anything. Instead, they were playing that familiar Korean protest music and sitting on aluminum foil mats, protesting.

From what I can gather, a private company, Najin Industries, has taken control of the street vendor racket in Yongsan, and has given the boot to all the black market merchants who used to line the road. The DVD pirates were, of course, not taking this lying down. Well, they were lying down on their mats, but they were not going without a fight. They put up posters on the new vendor stalls, voicing their rage.

Fast crappy translation:
“Street Vendors of Iron”
Under flag of the national street vendor association, come together and fight through blood and sweat to get our things back. Only by getting together can we live….
Ugh. It repeats the same silliness over and over.

Hey, it’s the street vendor liberation song! You will have to imagine the martial tunes blaring on the loudspeakers, but here are their heartfelt words:
1) The more we are stepped on, the more we will stand up. We are fighting street vendors.
2) Even the if government will try to kill us, a million street vendors will march forward together.
Chorus: We will not retreat, to be human. We will get back all the disrespect at once.
Ahhhh. A million street vendors’ brothers, the promise we made, let’s win liberation.

And we had this handwritten sign:

“We’ve been here 10 years. We’re very poor, barely able to get by. As a father of my family, for 10 years, Najin Industries has been oppressing us, so we have nowhere else to go. We have to fight. Najin Industries has been lying to street vendors and they tried to make a fight between store vendors and street vendors. Najin Industries should receive our challenge.

“Najin should immediately stop removing the street vendors without offering alternatives. Guarantee our lives. Najin should be responsible for where we stay.”

Okay, I told you my paraphrase was fast, loose and crappy. But the original material is not going to win any poetry awards either. From the department of redundancy department.

There is something pretty special about so much self-righteousness coming from people whose entire livelihoods are built on stealing intellectual property.

So what does this all mean? Is Korea finally getting serious about cracking down on piracy? Nothing would make me happier if that were the case. Getting serious about combating pirate bootlegs would do more to help the local media business than any number of screen quotas or government-sponsored investment funds. However, a quick walk through the basement of the building right next store to the demonstrations revealed this:

Yep. plenty of places where you can buy all your usual Japanese anime and American TV shows. So if you need to stock up on your DVD collection, do not worry, there are still plenty of good locations.

Not that I bought any illegal DVDs. No, that would be wrong. Even for the shows that have not been released in Korea but that my girlfriend and I really want to see, that would be wrong.

And in an unrelated note, THE WIRE is the best television show, period. I quite enjoyed watching several episodes of season 2 this evening.

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