IP: more on Sony chief in broadband warning to US

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

BTW, Tokyo Journey #2 will report on my experiences with FOMA etc  djf

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Tim Onosko" <tim () onosko com>
Reply-To: "Tim Onosko" <tim () onosko com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 08:52:30 -0500
To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: Re: Sony chief in broadband warning to US

Dave Farber:

With all due respect to Mr. Idei of Sony, his three arguments are quite
specious.

> "America has no one standard for its mobile phone system. And yet I don't
> know what the future plan is because it is a free economy. In America,
three
> systems co-exist. It's confusion. This is a weakness of America as number
> one.

Japan doesn't have one system either!  The exact criticism can be leveled at
Japan, where FOMA (NTT DoCoMo's "3G" system) is stalled, is expensive, and
has not been met with enthusiasm by its subscribers.  Upstarts such as
J-Phone appeal to the younger market segment with cheap air time and gadgets
like phones with built-in still cameras.  The Japanese wireless business is
chaotic, but also vibrant because of this chaos.

> The second weakness is that there is no strategy for broadband."

I met with a media industry study group in Tokyo recently about the
broadband rollout that is underway right now.  It is happening for three
reasons:  First, Korea and other Asian nations have shamed Japan into action
with their broadband penetration rates.  Second, the telcoms have decided to
light up massive amounts of non-performing dark fiber and sell service at
virtually any price.  And third, the Ministry of Post and Telecom has
instituted eJapan, an initiative to connect 30 million homes to broadband by
2005.

Yet, there is little, if any, development of the content side to go along
with this broadband activity.  The powerful television networks and Dentsu,
the media advertising prime mover, are skeptical that there is an
ad-supported broadband TV or other content business, because unbelievable
sums have already been lost on such previous government-led grand plans such
as BSD, a new broadcast satellite for digital high-def television that is a
resounding *failure*, and CS-110, a similar big-money plan for
satellite-delivered interactive TV.  Broadband WIRES and FIBER may be
rolling out, but no one is quite sure what service or content businesses
will follow.

> The third problem in the US was the lack of a law regulating the free
> distribution of copyrighted music and pictures on the net.
> Failure to draw up such a law was a serious threat to societies that rely
on
> intellectual property, Mr. Idei said.

What keeps this issue in check in Japan is the national sense of order, as
well as the prosecution of USERS for possession of pilfered copyrighted
materials such as music and software.  In China and elsewhere in Asia, the
lure of broadband IS access to huge amounts of pirated copyrighted material.
It is my feeling that Asia puts value in digital hardware, and thinks of
intellectual property such as movies, music and software as a free or cheap
commodity, while, in the U.S.,  the inverse is true.

Sony, itself, is heavily conflicted on this matter.  It aims to protect its
movies and music from piracy, yet has been forced by the market to sell DVD
and CD players that play open MP3s and Video CDs, the main Asian pirate
video medium (which aren't even legitimately sold in Japan.)  How does Mr.
Idei explain this self-defeating policy?  There are no better insights in
dealing with all these issues coming from Japan than there are from the
United States.  These are difficult issues in challenging times.






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