Here’s an interesting piece from the mainstream business community. Businessweek, a huge business-oriented news vehicle, has an article on anime publisher Kadokawa’s approach to people that use their properties for copyright-infringing anime videos

That’s not how Kadokawa sees it, though. Chairman and CEO Tsuguhiko Kadokawa thinks his company has nothing to lose by reaching out to anime diehards. As he sees it, the company’s traditional publishing business has no future in the digital era. And suing YouTube for copyright infringement, as MTV Networks owner Viacom did last year, would have only angered anime fans who have been using the site.

Kadokawa wants to endorse the best YouTube videos made with its content, some of which have been watched more than a million times. It’s sending e-mails to YouTube users, asking for permission to place Kadokawa’s marque and an ad alongside their videos, and encouraging them to join the four-month-old Kadokawa Anime channel on YouTube (2,186 have joined). Which videos make the cut? “If we can feel the love from the fans, I would say it’s O.K. to leave it,” says Fukuda. He is even looking into sharing the channel’s ad revenues with users.

It’s interesting to see Business Week talking about the operations of an anime company, but it’s important to remember that this article is just talking about the scores of anime music videos on youtube, not full scenes and episodes ripped straight from the DVDs and broadcasts. Kadokawa is still just as anti-pirate as anybody when it comes to that, but they at least realize that fanworks of love and admiration aren’t really a problem.

Business week has a great report on Kadokawa’s decision

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