Copyright Criminals

My E-Media Tidbits colleague, Steve Outing, often has touted the journalistic uses of photo phones — from how they can capture breaking news events to how they provide reporters with the means to instantly share notes with editors. Unfortunately, the ability to scan documents into a phone also has become appealing to copyright thieves. Earlier this month, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper published a story about digital shoplifters who use photo phones to steal content from books and magazines. The practice has become so widespread that the Telecommunications Carriers Association and the Japan Magazine Publishers Association distributed 30,000 posters to bookstores last year to warn against the practice. One labeling company even devised a photo-phone monitor that sets off an alarm when a customer tries to remove it.