Credit: Paweł Czerwiński A broad group of companies and associations covering most of the Japanese entertainment industry is calling on YouTube to be more proactive in policing its website for copyrighted material.In a letter sent Monday to YouTube Chief Executive Officer Chad Hurley and Chief Technology Officer Steve Chen, the group requests YouTube start a system that proactively identifies and removes copyrighted material rather than make rights holders find it and send in complaints.“Taking into account the current status of your service, we believe that your company should not just wait for rights owners to take the ‘Notice and Take down’ procedures but should bear the responsibility to prevent, in advance, copyright infringements such as illegal uploads and distributions, or to avoid those infringements,” said the letter, a copy of which was distributed to media Tuesday by the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC).Monday’s letter is signed by JASRAC and 22 other organizations including the Motion Picture Producers’ Association of Japan, the Japan Video Software Association, the Association of Japanese Animations, all of the major commercial TV broadcasters, the Japan Satellite Broadcasting Association, the Recording Industry Association of Japan and Yahoo Japan. It comes a month and a half after YouTube deleted 29,549 files based on a complaint filed by JASRAC. The association said the files in question infringed on the rights of 23 Japanese content companies. Neither that complaint nor YouTube’s action stopped users uploading content to the site, and plenty of clips from Japanese TV shows can again be found on YouTube.“We are seriously concerned about the current situation where the Notice and Takedown scheme, aimed [at preventing] copyright infringements, is not functioning well due to the large amount of illegal uploads,” the letter said. “While we expect you to promptly take adequate and necessary measures to prevent copyright infringement on the YouTube website, until you do so, we request you to take provisional measures … in order to prevent illegal uploads of audio-visual works, which copyrights are neither owned by the persons posting the works on the website themselves nor licensed by the right owners.”The preventative measures requested by the group include the posting of a message in Japanese on the YouTube homepage warning that posting copyrighted material can be illegal and that users may be subject to civil or criminal prosecution. It also requested a register of names and addresses of users posting content and the termination on request of user accounts that are used or have been used since June 2006 illegally to upload copyrighted material.The group also requests a reply to the letter by Dec. 15.YouTube could not be reached immediately for comment.-Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)Related Links: YouTube Deletes 30K Files on Request by Japan YouTube Goes Mobile Via Verizon Wireless Faux YouTube Videos Lure Users to Adware Japanese Version of MySpace Launched MySpace Hit With Copyright Suit by Universal MusicCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content feature Key IT initiatives reshape the CIO agenda While cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics remain top of mind for IT leaders, a shift toward delivering business value is altering how CIOs approach key priorities, pushing transformative projects to the next phase. By Mary Pratt May 30, 2023 10 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership opinion Managing IT right starts with rightsizing IT for value While there are few universals when it comes to saying unambiguously what ‘managing IT right’ looks like, knowing how to navigate the limitless possibilities of IT is surely one. By Thornton May May 30, 2023 6 mins Digital Transformation IT Strategy IT Leadership brandpost Designing the campus of the future starts with high-quality 10Gbps connectivity By Huawei May 30, 2023 4 mins Network Architect Networking Devices Networking feature Red Hat embraces hybrid cloud for internal IT The maker of OpenShift has leveraged its own open container offering to migrate business-critical apps to AWS as part of a strategy to move beyond facilitating hybrid cloud for others and capitalize on the model for itself. By Paula Rooney May 29, 2023 5 mins CIO 100 Technology Industry Hybrid Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe