The other day we wrote about the copyright issues Tokuma Japan is having with online video websites (Youtube, Veoh,…). About a month ago I read in (the) Road to the Deep East an article of Perfume’s new single and the author asked himself why Perfume is so desperate with the time between releases - they used to release one or a couple of singles per year. This may be caused by their success since Polyrhythm release a year ago, but this also can have something to do with the disbanding of Southern All Stars (read the above linked blog for more information on that). So is Perfume’s agency Amuse looking for ways to earn more from the increasing popularity of the group? Is banning online videos a way to achieve it?

And now, via this thread on the BBS (titled Someone figured out how to keep their ltw video on YouTube by pinoxperfume) is this what we’ll have to do if we want to upload the latest promotion videos of Perfume?

That’s a funny way to cheat on YouTube’s recognition system…! YouTube has a video recognition system that automatically find the videos under the “copyright defender companies blacklist” and delete them. Veoh has a similar but less complex way too, so if you upload a video named “perfume - love the world” you’ll instantly get an email advice from them to warn you about the illegal activity you was going to commit!

To top it all, and also read yesterdey on (the) Road to the Deep East, Niconico Douga, the Japanese most popular online video site is about to start banning fan anime videos (MAD) in collaboration with some of the most important anime industries associations.

Aren’t they going too far? I mean, is this thing of uploading videos to Internet that bad for the artists we like? I know it’s all about money, but in fact I believe this really helps the group/product. Who earns money with fan videos or promotion videos? Does anybody lose money? Please somebody tell me why we have to fight against them. Come on, big shots, love the fans, love the world!

I don’t endorse piracy but I support ways to “unofficially” promote our beloved artists… and that means uploading videos to make them known by as much people as possible, making fan videos/remix/misc art, sharing music and tv shows. It’s actually a very good way to promote a group. If we like what we listen and see online, we’ll support the group buying legal stuff, I mean it!

Even if we’ve got to spend more money on shipping fees!