WaiWai: Years of Copyright Violation

When the exploded on the internet, the Mainichi Daily News quickly pulled the column and its archives to the chagrin of many readers.

released by the MDN was this:

The Mainichi Newspapers is continuing to explain and apologize to publishing companies whose articles the column quoted without their permission and to the embassies of Ecuador and Belarus and other parties for any inconvenience we may have caused.

we find out that the WaiWai column violated the copyright of 32 newspaper and publishing companies:

In the printed and online editions of the Mainichi Shimbun on July 20, the Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd. released the results of its investigations into the WaiWai column (shut down in June) of the Mainichi Daily News. In the column, articles were used without the consent of their publishers -- including publishing and newspaper companies. Our follow-up investigation has found that we used and translated articles published by 32 publishing and newspaper companies without their permission.

To make matters worse, the MDN had been doing this ever since the inception of WaiWai:

The defunct printed edition of the Mainichi Daily News, which was published before the Mainichi Daily News became an online newspaper, also used and translated articles from other publications without permission from their copyright holders between October 1989 and March 2001. We are continuing to offer explanations and apologies to the publishers of these articles.

The Yomiuri Shimbun is not impressed:

According to the company investigation, articles from The Yomiuri Weekly, a magazine published by The Yomiuri Shimbun, were among those used without permission. Seventy articles and headlines were taken from the magazine, translated into English and posted on the WaiWai site.

Even before the Mainichi Daily News became a purely electronic newspaper in April 2001, about 70 articles were pulled without consent from a number of Yomiuri publications, including the weekly Shukan Yomiuri, and translated for the WaiWai column in the print edition of the newspaper.

Mainichi Newspapers reportedly allowed a number of these WaiWai translations to be reprinted in the publications of other companies and charged for their use. It is reportedly doing the necessary paperwork to return these sums.

It is interesting to note how the MDN's apologies have morphed over the past few months. In their , the MDN said that WaiWai carried content that was "inappropriate" and made readers "uncomfortable," instead of admitting that they were printing sleaze and lies.

As the MDN's investigation progressed, a statement released on July 29th noted the problem was with who was unfamiliar with copyright law.

This new statement partially negates the one made on July 20th and admits that WaiWai was ripping off other magazines and newspapers since its inception. Apologists for the column will be disappointed to learn that it wasn't a mob of angry 2-channelers or a crazy right-wing group that ended WaiWai. The MDN had no choice but to pull the column when they realized they had been violating copyright law.