Nico Video to Strictly Enforce Copyrights

CNET Japan reports that tremendously popular Japanese video hosting website Nico Nico Douga has come to an agreement with The Association of Japanese Animations, the Japan Video Software Association, and the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan to strictly enforce respect for copyrighted video material. All videos hosted on Nico Video that use copyrighted video footage without authorization will be removed, and all new video clips uploaded to the site will be reviewed for copyright violations. The enforcement will include both full movies and episodes as well as fan created videos that use clips from copyrighted material.

Nico Video has already been progressively removing full anime episodes and certain video clips containing video game footage – particularly clips including footage of Nintendo game properties – for some time now.

It’s ironic that while Nico Video is going to eliminate all unauthorized videos at the request of Japan’s anime & entertainment industry, the American Crunchyroll and YouTube websites continues to receive support and assistance from the same Japanese companies while offering countless video files that violate Japanese copyrights. It’s a little difficult to respect Japanese attacks on international fansubs when Japan’s own anime industry encourages America’s two biggest fansub distributors.

This move is also almost certain to make Nico Video’s popularity drop like an anchor.

Source: Canned Dogs