[floatr][/floatr]Variety: Kadokawa looks into YouTube toons
Media conglom Kadokawa Group Holdings is tying up with YouTube to earn ad coin from its toons that have been posted without its permission. Starting in June, when Kadokawa finds its toons on YouTube, it will check to see if the person/company that posted the content is legit rather than immediately ordering YouTube to take it down. If the person/company is OK'ed, Kadokawa will run ads on the poster's Web page and divide the revenue with YouTube and the poster. This business model is a first for the Japanese biz. Until now, Japanese visual contents rights holders, including TV nets and pic producers, have policed YouTube and similar sites for illegal use of their content and notified the site owners when they spot what they consider a pirate. Kadokawa, however, wants to encourage legit uses of its toons, while spreading the international word about them on YouTube and reaping profits in the bargain. Last year Kadokawa group company Kadokawa Digix participated in a test of the Google video identification and ad linkage software. Seeing their effectiveness, Kadokawa launched a vid clip page in February in collaboration with YouTube. The new toon venture carries that partnership one step farther.