Japanese cellcos and music download sites will meet with music industry officials next week to discuss a new anti-piracy system for mobile phone content.
The talks with the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) aim to set new copyright protection measures by the end of the year and could be in place by 2011, FT.com reported.
The RIAJ is pushing a system that would authenticate music tracks over the air and would block songs that were downloaded illegally. It is proposing mandatory installation of its copyright protection software in every mobile phone in Japan.
If it goes ahead it would be the world's first system to apply to consumers’ main music playing device, and may serve as a model for other markets.
Mobile content dominated Japan’s digital download market, accounting for 86% of legal downloads in the first quarter of 2009, according to the RIAJ.
RIAJ technical director Yoichiro Hata told the FT that the system could work because Japanese mobile operators control the software in the handset.