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Gonzo Shares Anime on Peer-to-Peer Network in Japan (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
Dreamboat, a Japanese online content distributor, has announced The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk series for a limited one-year test period.
Each release will include digital rights management to limit copying. Each 30-minute Speed Grapher episode is being offered for 1,000 yen ($9.00) for standard-definition resolution or 1,500 yen (US$13.00) for high-definition resolution. However, until January 31, 2008, Speed Grapher episodes will be offered for half price. Each 2.5-minute Project Papo episode is being offered for 150 yen (US$1.30) for standard-definition, high-definition, or ultra-high-definition resolution. For now Druaga is being offered only as a streaming trailer.
According to GDH, the trial will evaluate how P2P networks can reduce the strain on servers and network bandwidth use and how P2P networks can be used for a new business model. P2P Network Experimental Council, a group co-founded by testing the use of a peer-to-peer network to distribute anime episodes and trailers.
Unmentioned in either Dreamboat or GDH's press release is the fact that one of the developers of SkeedCast is Isamu Kaneko. As a onetime engineering graduate student, Kaneko created the Winny program that became Japan's first popular peer-to-peer file-sharing program. He was convicted of assisting copyright violations on December 13, 2006 and sentenced to pay 1.5 million yen (US$13,000). Kaneko is currently appealing the conviction.
Errata American dollar conversion for Kaneko's fine corrected. Thanks, frubam.
