"Strong international ties are essential for combating piracy"   

Takero Goto, representative director of the Content Overseas Distribution Agency (CODA) 

Q1. Hello, Director Goto. Could you please provide a brief introduction to CODA?

Beginning with the Japanese government's "Declaration on the Entry of Intellectual Property Rights" in 2022, the Content Overseas Distribution Agency (CODA) brought together content owners from music, movies, animation, broadcast programs, games, and publishing. The agency was established with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Agency for Cultural Affairs with the goal of promoting the international expansion of Japanese content and taking measures to combat piracy. Legal distribution and anti-piracy are closely intertwined. Recognizing the importance of piracy of Japanese content distributed abroad, CODA has developed direct measures such as joint enforcement against rights infringement, indirect measures such as requests to stop advertisements placed on pirated websites, public relations and development activities aimed at young people, and international cooperation, which is the most important component of measures to combat piracy in the online environment.

Q2. As technology advances, new copyright issues arise in the online environment, such as "fast movies" and spoiler websites. I'm curious how CODA will respond to this.

Needless to say, CODA's anti-piracy efforts are currently focused primarily online. With the advancement of digitization and networking, as well as the widespread adoption of smartphones, online piracy websites have become a major issue. Furthermore, the development of generative AI and translation tools is reducing the language "barrier". There are concerns that violations of rights committed under such circumstances will quickly spread by individuals without borders, as well as infiltrate and spread among young people without them having any time to feel guilty. Moreover, various international services exploit anonymity and secrecy as weapons to enable the operation of pirated websites. As a result, addressing the internet piracy will be incredibly tough.

In April 2021, CODA established the Cross-Border Enforcement Project (CBEP) with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to strengthen international enforcement procedures and launched digital forensics and online profiling investigations to identify the operators of malicious pirated websites, as well as procedures for disclosing information to the courts, in cooperation with ethical hackers, cyber security experts, and international law firms.

CBEP has achieved significant progress over the three years since its establishment, culminating in March of this year. The so-called spoiler website issue became a problem in the spring of 2021, when "fast movies," YouTube videos that are shortened to about 10 minutes and then explained and introduced the content and ending, became popular due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented people from going out. Uploading content with an ending disclosed a crucial point depending on the work, and it might be argued that the damage and impact on the rights holder were significant. CBEP petitioned to the U.S. court for the disclosure of caller information about the fast movie uploader and obtained the suspect’s information based on the legal basis of identifying the uploader. Consequently, three uploaders were arrested in June 2021 for violating copyright laws, and all three were found guilty in December of the same year. In 2022, the affected member companies launched a case claiming damages against the three and they were compelled to pay 500 million yen in damages that same year. In another CBEP milestone involving the spoiler issue, the uploader of a "gameplay video" that violated the guidelines was arrested in May 2023 and sentenced in September of the same year.

Q3. Please share the most outstanding example of CODA's work to combat copyright infringement.

As with the spoiler issue, CBEP's contribution was noteworthy. "B9GOOD", which is the largest pirated animation website aimed at Japanese consumers, has been convicted. "B9GOOD" is a highly harmful website that has been posting a considerable number of pirated content for commercial purposes since 2008. It has been based in China for about 15 years. Since 2016, CODA has taken various measures against "B9GOOD". In 2016, the Chinese government requested administrative action against the website in response to the online anti-piracy campaign "Inspection Activities" (Crackdown on Online Illegal Infringement), and instructions were granted to shut down the website as an administrative procedure. Nonetheless, the operator implemented geo-blocking (regional viewing restrictions) on the website, claiming to shut it down in China, and continued to commit infringements in Japan and other countries after that.

Under CBEP’s direction, CODA conducted a re-investigation of "B9GOOD" and was successful in identifying the website’s operator and gathering information on the suspect on a legal basis, as well as filing a criminal complaint with the Public Security Bureau of China. They were apprehended in February 2023, and the operators and uploaders were found guilty in December of the same year. It was the first time that criminal penalties had been imposed on pirated website operators and uploaders since the initial move in Japan (CODA), which was extremely unusual.

Q5. What is your opinion about copyright protection in Korea?

In the case of Korea, I believe Korea is carrying out exemplary activities, such as the maintenance and operation of the legal environment by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, measures to combat piracy including online enforcement by the Korea Copyright Protection Agency, the promotion of international cooperation by private organizations by the Copyright Overseas Promotion Association, and public relations and development activities to inform consumers about the importance of intellectual property rights protection such as copyright through public-private partnerships in Korea. I think Japan and CODA have a lot to learn from these efforts.

Q6. Lastly, what would you like to say to the readers and subscribers of <C STORY> in Korea?

With K-pop musicians, thriving Korean dramas, and more recently, webtoons, I believe the Hallyu content industry is truly sweeping the world. Korean content has permeated Japanese people’s daily lives to the point that it is impossible to go a day without encountering Korean-produced content. However, I believe that Hallyu content, which may be an excellent target for piracy businesses hidden throughout the world, will be unable to avoid the piracy problem that exists across borders.

Legitimate content distribution and anti-piracy measures are closely related, and we must handle the problem accordingly. What matters here are public-private partnerships and international connections. CODA will continue to make additional efforts to strengthen ties with copyright protection organizations, content companies, and content owners, beginning with Korean government agencies and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency, as well as take measures to combat piracy, protect rights, and promote cultural development between Korea and Japan.