Victory for Mixi's Users in IP Dispute

As reported here last week, Japan's huge social networking site, Mixi, had announced plans to assert its control over its users' intellectual property rights.

But, after a broad rebellion by Mixi users, the company has backtracked. Today, the company has a new announcement on the site that all user-created content belongs to the creator.

Although the initial reactions from users are somewhat skeptical, the legal ambiguities we reported in our earlier coverage appear to have been resolved.

Influential Japanese blogger, Tomohiro Machiyama is posting today that the company's retreat can allow Mixi users some "peace of mind," but notes, "If so much noise hadn't been made (by users), I question if the (offensive) clauses would have been modified."

Mixi's original plan was to implement control over users' IP on April Fool's Day, and that is no joke.

David Weir

David Weir is a veteran journalist who has worked at Rolling Stone, California, Mother Jones, Business 2.0, SunDance, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, MyWire, 7x7, and the Center for Investigative Reporting, which he cofounded in 1977. He’s also been a content executive at KQED, Wired Digital, Salon.com, and Excite@Home. David has published hundreds of articles and three books,including "Raising Hell: How the Center for Investigative Reporting Gets Its Story," and has been teaching journalism for more than 20 years at U.C. Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and Stanford.

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