Research Report : The Path to Introducing Audio Fingerprinting

Broadcasting and Music Copyright Entering a New Age

Abstract

Broadcasts use a huge amount of music. In order to distribute the royalties to the right holders, broadcasters are obliged to report the music pieces they use to JASRAC or other copyright management societies. With the advent of the internet age and heightened awareness of rights, more accurate report of all the music used is being required. To achieve this, more broadcasters are introducing the audio fingerprinting technology that automatically detects the characteristics of music. Looking at the background to the introduction of the technology, we can see that there have been tenacious debates between the users (broadcasters) and right holders/copyright management societies on how to solve problems and how to establish new rules. “Protection of rights” and “the development of culture” are the purpose of the Copyright Act. This article discusses the challenges and prospects of balancing these two theses while developing broadcast content.