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Japanese phone makers have agreed to add DRM to all phones produced for the country, at the insistence of music and movie companies. The DRM will scan each and every media file being played on the phone, and check with online servers to check if the file has been purchased legally or not, and if not, refuse to play back the file.
This means that no media file will play without a wireless Internet connection (which I assume isn't as sketchy to connect or expensive as it is here in Australia and most countries), and that ripping songs from legally purchased CDs (assuming they still have those in Japan) to MP3 may be out of the question as well.
This kind of thing would never work anywhere outside of Japan, where consumer rights ain't a huge thing and where competing companies do co-operate together for the benefit of the industry in general, or at least what they perceive to be the best interest. Would anyone in the west buy a mobile phone that won't play most MP3s, while a competitor offers a phone that do?
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This means that no media file will play without a wireless Internet connection (which I assume isn't as sketchy to connect or expensive as it is here in Australia and most countries), and that ripping songs from legally purchased CDs (assuming they still have those in Japan) to MP3 may be out of the question as well.
This kind of thing would never work anywhere outside of Japan, where consumer rights ain't a huge thing and where competing companies do co-operate together for the benefit of the industry in general, or at least what they perceive to be the best interest. Would anyone in the west buy a mobile phone that won't play most MP3s, while a competitor offers a phone that do?
More:
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