Hi everyone.  A short J!-ENT article on the return of Do As Infinity.  Also, photos from their performance at Yoyogi Park on Sept. 30th.  Enjoy!

The Return of Do As Infinity by J!-ENT’s Dennis A. Amith

Miley Cyrus’s album “Breakout” debut at #8 on October 15 (moved up to #7 on Oct. 16th) and has shipped over 1.1 million copies in Japan surpassing Madonna’s latest album sales in Japan.

Fans in Japan can catch Miley Cyrus on her Disneyland Sweet 16th Birthday special on Oct. 17 on CX Mezumashi TV (5:25 -7:59) which features a special birthday party and several thousand fans (who paid $250) to join Miley on her birthday at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA on Oct. 5th. The party was also to honor the Youth of America. The theme park was closed for the evening on this day for the special occasion.

source: avex entertainment

Greetings everyone, a short article to promote CAMINO’s upcoming performance in Toronto, Ontario on Nov. 14th and the bands fan activities on the 15th and 16th at DotCon.  You can download the article here.

Since the beginning of J!-ENT and the early Japanese music mailing list or forums nearly 20 years ago, the debate on Japanese music piracy has always been a hot topic amongst music listeners.

Back in the early 90’s, on TCP’s JPOP Mailing List (the first major English Japanese music mailing list), the debate was focused solely on those who purchased CD’s that came from Asia.

Purchasing the latest Japanese album from a store like Kinokuniya, UC Irvine’s Bookstore or a Japanese store that sold Japanese music would cost fans around $40 but at the same time, you can head to Chinatown in San Francisco or purchase it from a anime con (years before conventions started issuing their “no bootleg” policy).

You would find these albums cheap and they would contain not just the album but several CD singles of that artist or band included in those albums. But the debates would rage from those who said that you support the artist and the industry in hopes for distribution in that country, while others argued…I’m just a student, I can’t afford $40 for one album.

Arguments from fans back then were similar to what was going on with anime fans who were pushing for people to purchase their anime to jump start a small but growing anime industry in the US, Japanese music fans wanted to see distribution in their country. So, many of these fans were vocal to not purchase these albums.

In 1998, there was a boom of Japanese music MP3 sites. Downloads were broken in up pieces for music and MP3’s or people just connected to someone’s college dorm room via FTP and downloaded the music.

During that time, it was my first time meeting lawyers from Japan who were in the US and studying about piracy and what was being done in the US. It was also during a time when the focus was solely on Japanese video stores who were renting out videos of Japanese television shows which led to “Hobankyo” (Hoso Bangumi Chosakuken Hogo Kyogikai).

According to groinkcaps.com: Hobankyo is an entity, representing all the Japanese television networks, motion picture producers, Japanese anime manufacturers, screenwriters and record companies. Hobankyo enforces intellectual property laws outside of Japan, such as copyright laws, regarding Japanese entertainment. Together with other law enforcement agencies around the world, they crack down on organizations - mostly video stores - that illegally distribute Japanese entertainment content protected by Hobankyo. For-sale and rental items come under Hobankyo. To be legal, stores must obtain licenses from Hobankyo for all items that are protected by Hobankyo. Hobankyo then issues a holographic decal that is placed on the item. Television-related members of Hobankyo include: TBS, NHK, TV Asahi, Fuji Television (Fuji TV), and TV Tokyo.

And thus led to these stores having to identify themselves as working with Hobankyou by placing their sticker on their videos, having to pay a fee on each video tape rented and those who defied Hobankyou, what happened was that these companies were either busted or what many stores ended up doing, they no longer offered video rentals at their store or simply closed down.

Flash forward ten years later and now there are bit torrent sites, LiveJournal/blog sites that are featuring illegal MP3’s much more that it’s become so bad to the point that if you type an artist and their song on google, the top 3 searches is to download the full CD single or album from a blog site.

The hardwork that fans have put into supporting a Japanese music and even anime distribution in North America has evidently been hurt by piracy.

There is no need to get into the anime industry, since there are so many blogs of what is currently happening (and a really good editorial by Justin Sevakis from Anime New Network).

But going back to the music, when Sony Music Japan had their US distribution company Tofu Records, I remember several years ago that the albums that were released in the US, they were then being put on bit torrent sites and Sony’s legal department had to get involved. Unfortunately, Tofu Records ceased operation in Jan. 2007. Actually, a correction on the official term I was told… “on hiatus” as the company was looking into digital distribution.

Avex Entertainment Inc. also tried. Back in 2003, the company was selling albums at anime retailers and at anime cons and what a great time it was to purchase $40 albums for $12-$15. But yet, people were still pirating the music despite the low price in the US. So, now Avex and various Japanese music labels have since added artists from their catalogue onto iTunes. In fact, now, many companies have added their music to iTunes, JapanFiles.com, HearMusic.com, MySpace.com and various legal distribution platforms.

And with songs offered at .99 cents, unfortunately, people continue to upload the albums on blog sites, message boards and bit torrent knowing that they are being offered legally elsewhere.

Unknown to these sites, since 2006-2007, there has been cataloging of activity on these sites. I have seen for myself, the various PDF’s of user activity and the albums, CD singles and DVD’s uploaded or linked from various sites.

In fact, back in 2007, there was the first Japanese music conference before A-Kon in Dallas, Texas which several members of the Japanese music and even a few from the anime industry took part in and discussed how piracy affected their industry.

This past Spring, at the Tokyo Anime Fair, Japan’s Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a symposium on intellectual property of anime, manga and various content.

Several weeks ago, JapanFiles.com made a step to discourage people from pirating their music that are featured on their website (please check this article from japanator.com) for details.

What may seem that its focused on a smaller group on LiveJournal is actually quite significant because it goes beyond just a single community on Live Journal, it has now led to various labels now searching blogs and web forums for illegal content that is easily distributed.

Label representatives and the legal department have joined various forums and various bit torrent sites to catalogue every upload.

As of early this morning, a representative of a major Japanese music label said that they will be taking a stand on illegal downloads on Asian music on various community and blog sites. In fact, in the message, in caps “STOP ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS!!!”

The fact that these labels are moving towards digital distribution and seeing how their music are so easily linked on a search engine and seeing nearly every album, CD single and even the DVD releases of the artists or bands so easily accessible has now captured the attention of not just the music labels and their legal departments but from JASRAC, RIAJ and other entities.

Unfortunately, as much as some communities or forums have tried to avoid problems by having members-only sites, there are people who just frankly share these files in public. And as for those passworded, members only sites…they’ve already been infiltrated by reps in the industry.

So, why am I writing this? It’s because this has been going on for so long that everyone knows someone who downloads a file, knows people from different countries who have no distribution of Asian music in their country who rely on illegal MP3’s and then puts it on a blog for others to download and frankly, it’s become far too common and easily accessible for people to obtain them that things are going to change.

Too many years have past with many people thinking that because there has been a lack of action outside of Japan towards these sites that the Japanese music industry is not going to do anything about it.

But things are going to change. It’s inevitable. And I know it’s not a year later, action will be happening soon.

And those who are uploading these files, you may want to reconsider what’s happening. This is no longer a situation that focuses on one company protecting their artists or bands copyrights, but it has drawn the attention of these major companies and from the pages and pages of illegal music on the torrent sites to the long lists of what people are offering, they are going to take action.

I’ve reviewed the comments on DIGG and the various blog sites in regards to the JapanFiles.com situation but unfortunately, arguments such as “this band said they don’t mind if we download their files illegally”, “we are teenagers and we can’t afford to purchase the music” or “the fans are what helped make these bands or labels big in this country, they should be respectful for us for providing access to these downloads to get the word out about their music”. And I know these people made these comments with good-intent but truthfully, these arguments are not going to fly in court or with these labels or these corporate entities.

I a learning that a large demographic of those who are providing uploads of these files just kids or people who have not even started their careers yet and are still going to school. The truth is, a lot of them have seen others do it and now they do it. Again, this has been going on so long (ten years now) that there have been no ramifications and many figure, it’s ok and that the reason why nothing has happened is that the industry doesn’t care. There is also a misunderstanding logic that because if a band says that they don’t care, all bands feel the same way. Not all bands think this way. And regardless of what bands or artists may feel, it’s their label that shoulders the burden of profit of an artist. Afterall, it’s a business and they need to make money. And a lot of these labels, A&R and managers were so unaware of how bad the music and video piracy  outside of Japan was until now and now are prepared to take action.

For those who want to battle against the industry, that’s their prerogative but for those who were uploading large volume of music or DVD video illegally for the sake of fandom and doing it because of their passion for the music, you may want to just stop because it’s not worth the battle.