Respect people's boundaries

At a recent seminar on the South Korean “Gangnam Style” phenomenon and its cultural implications, academics pointed out that the centre of cultural dominance was moving away from the West. Seven Asean countries were in the top-20 in terms of the most views of K-pop sensation Psy’s “Gangnam Style” music video on YouTube.

The academics put this widespread love of the K-culture down to social media and a lenient policy on intellectual property. 

Kittiwat Manosuthi (@Kittiwat), CEO of the Asian concert promoter Avalon Live Co, said entertainment companies in the East were making adjustments to accommodate the “sharing” culture. 

“Japanese firms were very strict and pictures of their artists would never be available for free on the Net. In Japan, all images of artists have a commercial value, be it a postcard, poster or photo album,” Kittiwat said.

His company’s website recently posted an image of Japan’s Hey!Say!JUMP band and under the picture is the request: “Please do not copy or redistribute this image”.

While copyright laws are still very strict in Japan, Kittiwat said his firm was becoming lenient with Thai fans and looking at violations on a case-by-case basis. Previously, South Korean music companies used to trace and remove all pictures and videos of their artists posted by fans from other countries, though now images and videoclips are freely available on many websites and social media.

Besides, fan clubs are also regulating themselves, and warning each other of what might be considered “going too far”, whichmight put their beloved stars into trouble. 

“Just don’t make it too obvious,” Kittiwat said, adding that if images posted online were high quality or drew too much attention, such as a million views on YouTube, the firm owning the copyright might remove them or take action to prevent others from commercialising the artist. 

“There are people who abuse the pictures, and some even sell them. Sometimes fans are so desperate that they are willing to pay for a poor quality product,” he said.

However, he said, Korean and Japanese entertainment companies are starting to change their behaviour with well-behaved fans from countries like Thailand. In fact, many of these firms have started easing the rules in these countries. 

“Maybe these companies are focusing more on concerts as they make money. Or maybe they believe that shared recordings and pictures promote their artists or perhaps they are too tired of tracing posts and removing them,” he said. “We should learn more about intellectual property. Then fans can see the value of an artist’s songs or performance, and realise that sharing them openly deteriorates the artist’s worth.” 

Though the give-and-take culture continues online, respect of other people’s boundaries will keep good things coming.