Thanks to the ubiquitous penetration of broadband Internet and the rapid development of information and communications technology (ICT), facility-less service providers, or so-called Over-The-Tops (OTTs), have come into a viable existence since the late 2000s. OTTs have penetrated first into the online application sector, then into the video-distribution market, and finally into the simple voice communications market, which has long been regarded as the home turf of traditional telecommunications carriers. Theoretically speaking, the emergence of new competitors in the once-monopolistic voice communications market increases the number of options for consumers, enhances the service quality, and may rationalize the universal service framework in the telecom sector; all of these contribute to the improvement of social welfare. Thus, if there are some entry barriers for OTT voice service providers and if these barriers are hard to overcome due to some structural reasons, we should investigate whether any governmental intervention is justified. In this paper, in order to provide basic insights for the future policy discussion, the author empirically shows the size of entry barrier for OTT players and how it will be affected by possible inter-carrier negotiation, and points out the market failure where policy intervention may be required.

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In this paper, I discuss the impact that paid and free digital distribution have on the number of physical sales in the creative industry from the view point of complementary effects and substitution effects. Additionally, using panel data in which products are treated as groups and episodes of TV programs are treated as series, I estimate the relationship between the number of digital distribution views and the number of package physical sales in the late-night animation market.
The results showed that the complementary effect of free digital distribution is greater than a substitution effect, so free digital distribution has a significant positive impact on the number of physical sales. It was found that the number of physical sales increases by about 0.10% when free digital distribution views increase by 1%. In addition, paid digital distribution had no significant effect. From the above, it is proposed that digital distribution leads to an increase in the consumer surplus and the producer surplus in late-night animation market at least.
Furthermore, while a more detailed analysis revealed that both paid and free digital distribution had an effect on physical sales of products aimed at men, no such effects were seen for products aimed at women. In addition, free digital distribution of original works has a positive effect on physical sales, while paid and free digital distribution of other works have no effects. It was also found that free digital distribution of works by unknown producers has a positive effect on physical sales, while paid and free distribution of works by well-known producers have no effects.

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In the United States, a strong argument has been made that the protection provided by the Fourth Amendment is invalid when government entities obtain historical cell site location data from electronic communications service providers lawfully without a warrant issued by the court, so far as those data are regarded as “business records” being voluntarily exposed to a third party, i.e., the providers, by users or subscribers. This argument may lead to the understanding that service providers have considerable discretion in handling the data. On the other hand, some arguments claim that the Fourth Amendment protection is still valid even in such a case. These arguments might have an impact upon the interpretation of some debated points of Japan's constitutional law, given that cell site location data can be considered part of the “secrecy” of communications protected by the Constitution of Japan.

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This paper outlines a proposal for a new framework for the provision of a universal service aimed at solving the various issues inherent in community informatization, and goes on to look at the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed framework and review its feasibility. In order to ensure that telecommunications services are universally accessible, in less favored areas, a universal service is currently provided for analog landline telephones by using a universal service fund system to supplement a portion of the costs of the qualified telecommunications carriers. With the development of optical networks, optical IP phones have also been included as a technology for which universal service is provided, but at the same time dependence on landline phones is decreasing due to the popularity and convenience of cell-phones. As this is accompanied by developments such as the fact that almost 100% of Japanese households now have broadband access, there is a pressing need for radical review of the system from a technical perspective. Additionally, given that consumers' organizations and other bodies strongly oppose the fact that carriers pass on the burden of their universal service fund contributions so that the full amount of contributions is shared among telephone number users, it is also necessary to reconsider the approach to how cost burdens are shared. At the same time, while 2.5 GHz band regional Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) has been made available for providing broadband in rural areas, its level of usage is low and ensuring its utilization is a matter of urgency. This paper will deal with these issues collectively, and propose a framework for maintaining and developing community informatization.

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