Koichi Sugiyama is renowned across the world for the expansive orchestral work he's contributed to the Dragon Quest series. Lesser known is the fact that he's a boardmember on JASRAC, a copyright collection agency that's the equivalent of the RIAA in Japan, and he frequently comments to the media about copyright and piracy issues. (These often don't get reported on as much as his more conservative, nationalistic comments, such as that time in 2007 when he spearheaded a full-page ad in the Washington Post disputing Japan's involvement with "comfort women" during World War II.)Dragon Quest IX may have sold 3 million copies in Japan within two days of launching, but that hasn't kept Sugiyama from getting steaming mad over gamers using flash-RAM carts to play the RPG for free. "The way I see it, it's like selling a set of thieves' tools," he commented to Famitsu magazine this week. "If you make off with a physical item, everybody knows that's a crime. If you stole an apple from a fruit stand, then you're plainly committing the crime of shoplifting; going into someone's house and taking their jewelry is robbery. Everyone is conscious of the fact that stealing what's in front of you is a crime, but with something that's not in plain sight, like intellectual property, a lot of people fail to understand what the issue is."
Going into people's houses unannounced and rifling through all their possessions in search of herbs and gold is one of Dragon Quest's more amusing hallmarks, but Sugiyama doesn't have much respect for people who have no problem emulating that in real life. "I'd like them to see this property the same way they'd see physical property," he said. "Looking at how aware the world's nations are of copyright, I'm sad to say that I have the impression Japan is lagging behind. The more advanced a nation, generally the more respectful of copyright they are, but I would not call Japan at all advanced in this regard."
Sugiyama's reputation for being outspoken has made him an easy target for criticism among Japanese gamers, similar to litigious anti-violence activist Jack Thompson over here. "[Internet] opinions don't make me angry -- they inspire me to try harder," the composer responded in the Famitsu interview. "It's hard to say if the anti-copyright crowd is a small group or actually the majority, but let's say they compose about 20 percent of users, and another 20 percent completely and fully support copyright. That leaves 60 percent of users without a clear view on the law, and there's the chance that the 20 percent with outrageous opinions will drag that 60 percent to their side. I've seen that phenomenon in several cases, so you can't ignore it just because you think it's a tiny minority at work. These are all hypothetical figures, but the real battle here will be how to appeal to this large group of people without a solid opinion on copyright."
A revision to Japan's copyright legislation passed in May means that as of January 1, 2010, it will be expressly against the law to download pirated software in the nation, in addition to uploading it. Downloading will not be an arrestable offense and holds no criminal penalties, but if a game publisher felt like it, they could track illegal downloaders and take them to civil court for damages, much as the RIAA has tried to do with music downloaders in the US.
Sugiyama isn't all that satisfied with this new law, however. "Selling pirated games or offering them for download on the Internet puts you afoul of the law, but selling the RAM cartridges themselves is tough to restrict by law," he said. "With the revisions to copyright law taking effect next year, using a RAM cartridge to commit intellectual property theft will be a crime, but actually arresting someone for it will be extremely difficult. It may be time to consider some other sort of legal restriction."
Source: 1up
