ROK Embassy also Accused of Subscribing to Illegal System

One wonders if the Japanese knew what they were letting themselves in for when they allowed South Koreans to enter the country without restrictions. Certainly the Shinjuku backwater of Hyakunincho, where I lived for five years, was transformed and now looks more like downtown Seoul than Tokyo. It’s certainly a vast improvement on the nothingness that was there before.

But, at times, it seems to exist in a world of its own, with its own language, customs, culture and laws. Unlicensed banks operate out of small dingy offices, Korean clubs and bars – with a lot of illegal Korean hostesses – proliferate, and shops sell illegal recordings of the latest Korean pop songs, films and TV shows.

And TV is where we come in. While a version of Korean TV – KNTV – is available via SkyperfecTV!, it’s really not much better than BBC World or other digestive versions of foreign TV stations (mainly government-owned).

Thanks to the Internet, viewing your favorite programs from back home is not so difficult nowadays. The inefficient way is to set up an Internet operation via free services such as Vuze and then download your favorite shows from any number of sites that store TV programs (The Pirate Bay being the most famous).

There is an alternative: Slingbox, a relatively simple method that almost anybody can set up to watch TV stations from one’s home country “live.” Basically you hook up to a TV back home and are able to control the programs remotely via your computer. Nowadays, there are paid services for certain countries that are licensed to provide a feed (for around ¥1,000 a month). There are other services available that require a USB connector (in the region of ¥20,000) and don’t charge a monthly fee.

World TV got into the game early and charged a ¥5,000 monthly subscription. For that, you could watch all Korean mainstream terrestrial channels live in Japan. It proved popular among the Korean community; the alternative was to buy videocassettes crammed with crappy Korean dramas.

But there was that teeny weeny question of copyright, and this little problem has come to plague WorldTV boss Takeshi Hosoda. He admits that his company put the product into place before addressing the issue of copyright, but he’s a respectable businessman and was always planning to resolve such issues. But that resolution never came, and he is now facing a serious lawsuit, which is somewhat ironic, as he was probably the only operator out there who wanted to go legit.

He had friendly discussions with government-owned broadcaster KBS as well as the copyright holder in Japan: Yuji Suzuki (also a Korean, according to Hosoda) of Korea Japan Media Systems. Suzuki was very friendly and even invited Hosoda and his wife to a party at the New Otani Hotel at the end of 2007 to meet a top Korean politician. Hosoda said he had a very good relationship with Suzuki and the two were in discussions regarding copyright and business cooperation.

But in early 2008, Hosoda thought that the business was more trouble than it was worth and in March of the same year he decided to offload it to another company, GTV. This outfit, he says, is still in business, as are at least two other companies (that he is aware of): MT of Osaka and Agora TV. All, he says, are owned by Koreans.

Having washed his hands of transmitting Korean TV into Japan, Hosoda thought he was done with that side of his business. So he was shocked when the police walked into his office and said he was being sued for copyright violations. He figured he was part of a sweep to clean up this aspect of the broadcasting business, but he now says he is being victimized. He’s not exactly sure why but suspects that it’s because he’s Japanese. The companies mentioned above that, he says, are still in the business, are all apparently Korean-owned and have not been targeted. He believes that KBS wants to make an example of a Japanese operator.

But he wonders why. He always had good relations with KBS Japan CEO Chang Hae Rang and copyright holder Suzuki. He even met them together in the autumn of 2008 – half a year after he had ceased operations – and there was no animosity at all. But a year earlier – while World TV were still in negotiations regarding copyright – KBS got together with MBC and SBS and opted to resort to the law to protect their product.

“Our image has been damaged by all this,” says Kwon Oh-Jun, KBS Japan’s Director of Programming Dept. “It’s got nothing to do with him being Japanese; we are also taking action against Koreans, too. But he did something in the past and has a responsibility for that. He may have stopped operating, but if we let him get away with it, what about those other people doing the same thing? We have an obligation to see this through.”

Current KBS Japan CEO and President Yun Myung-Shik says they expected the case to be resolved quicker than a civil case.

“We thought it would be completed quickly,” Yun stated. “But it’s dragging on.” In the meantime, KBS has filed civil suits against other agents, but Yun did agree that the case against World TV had added significance.

“They started everything, so it’s symbolic, and we must let everyone know that.” The outcome of the World TV case, he points out, could impact the other ongoing cases.

But there’s an added twist to all this.

Hosoda says that his company installed two of its units at the South Korean embassy in Tokyo so staff could watch Korean programs there. If true, then surely KBS, which is owned by the South Korean government, should also file a lawsuit against the South Korean embassy.

Kwon says they have no knowledge of any wrongdoing at the embassy and says KBS installed a satellite system at the embassy to enable staff to view KBS programs.

Hosoda doesn’t understand why KBS should continue to target him more than a year after he stopped operating.

“They don’t need the money,” he points out. “So they could only be interested in stopping illegal broadcasts of their programs. Well, we don’t broadcast programs anymore, so why the lawsuit?”

KBS suddenly stopped returning his calls, while copyright holder Suzuki and his company have seemingly disappeared. Hosoda tried talking to the lawyer handling the case for the plaintiffs, but that didn’t go well.

“He just shouted, ‘You’re guilty! You’re guilty! You’re guilty!’” Hosoda recalls. The police apparently took the same angry attitude when Hosoda was called in for questioning in March. For his part, he just wants to find out why he’s being chased through the courts over a defunct business. He is, after all, probably the smallest fish in a big sea of copyright violators. Walk into any number of bars in Roppongi, Kabukicho or Okubo and you will see foreign TV channels being played. Only two months ago, a Japanese person tried to sell me a USB connector for ¥20,000 so my Korean wife could watch Korean TV (“Pay ¥20,000 and after that it’s free,” I was told.).

Yun says KBS has not granted permission to any company to tap into a live feed of its programs.

“We don’t permit any company in Japan to do that,” he confirmed. But he admits that it’s a tough battle trying to preserve their copyright and is less interested in individual violators downloading stuff on the Internet than in those trying to make a business out of it.

“There’s a big difference,” he says. “If it’s an individual doing it via the internet, it’s not such a big deal. The problem is when people try to sell our programs to a third party.”

Hosoda believes that he is being made a scapegoat.

“I don’t know why I must be sacrificed,” he laments. “I made a big effort to negotiate and consult with Mr. Suzuki on the advice of KBS and we all had dinner together. There are still two units operating in the embassy and they are still paying money to GTV.”

Let’s hope Japan’s diligent police force are chasing that one down as well. ❶

Fred Varcoe is editor of the Number 1 Shimbun and Secretary of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.