For the uninitiated Niconico is a Japanese video uploading website. Some of the anibloggers in my read list refer to it from time to time mostly to highlight outstanding videos, in particular those MADs(AMVs). It’s also a great source that taps into areas already covered by YouTube but it goes beyond that I must say.
Digression: niconico(ニコニコ） is Japanese onomatopoeia for smiling.
Thus with much dismay when I see news in the tubes saying that Niconico made an agreement to pull copyrighted material from their site. The last time I logged in there, I see tonnes of anime-based videos; it is not unbelievable to say none of them will be there if Niconico enforces this agreement strictly. What’s unbelievable is that a site that had its popularity shot through the roof with the likes of “illegal fan-made” material turned its back on the community they put together.
Ouch.
In the spirit of fairness I should also say that commercial entities are often caught between a rock and a hard place. Not the best place to be when the law had not yet caught on to technology or common sense (!) and hence is exploitable by lobbies/organisations with vested interests.
Ted.org had a speaker who expounds on this topic rather eloquently here. Sorry, video is not embeddable (garrrr worpress).
Edit: Found youtube link to the TED video
