High penalties for illegal music and video downloads in Japan. Why isn't it possible for images! If the music industry can use its power in such manner why can't the stock photography business do the same! It would be great if this could change in the future!

http://www.myce.com/news/japanese-pirates-now-face-up-to-10-years-in-jail-or-130000-fine-64080/

I bet this won't change a single thing.

I think that although it will still be difficult to claim an infringement, it will certainly help to reduce the amount of illegal downloads. Just the fact that these kind of laws exist and that more and more people are aware of them the better for us. I still think that one of the main problems we have with our struggle against copyright infringement is the fact that most people don't know that they are breaking the law. The more these laws come into attention the more people will be aware of copyright law.

 

Major companies like Adobe saw the writing on the wall years ago about the inevitable failure of copyright law. This is why so many programs are going online, eventually, you either have to pay a huge premium for a local machine install, or, it just flat out won't be an option. I've already found software products with zero plans for local install options.

It's happening.

I tend to think that Adobe's subscription offering is less a response to copyright infringement than it is a way to get licensed users to upgrade. In practice, most PS and AI users are still sticking with CS3.

Almost all of the people who upgrade to CS6 are printers and others who have no choice but to own the latest version, for the few clients who submit images which use the latest features. Adobe hopes to change that with subscriptions. From what I have seen, it looks like a hard sell. Most people are still sticking with CS3-5.

Musicians are also little guys! Getty, Alamy, Shutterstock, Istock, Corbis, Fotolia... are relatively big guys. It is their job to protect the market!It is in their but also in our favor!