From picturephoning.com I learned of an article in JoonAng Daily reporting how South Koreans are using camera phones to photograph pages from textbooks instead of purchasing the books.
I had written more than a year ago about how Japanese camera phone users were photographing pages from magazines, creating a situation that has been called "digital shoplifting." But I haven't read too much about the phenomenon since.
According to the article, this is a serious problem in Korea. Bookstores are posting signs that warn customers that photographing books is a violate of copyright.
Hard times
One bookstore staff member says the prevalence of camera phones combined with the poor economy is sparking more people to photograph pages from expensive textbooks. The article reports that bookstore employees say most of the scofflaws are students their 20s and 30s.
An official at KT, a large Korean telecommunications company, says using camera phones to copy books is widespread because it's so easy. He said camera phones can take 100 - 200 photos and the photos are easy to view on a computer.
Unlike in the United States, where our VGA camera phones produce rather poor photos (though there are exceptions), South Korean cellular subscribers can purchase a large variety of good one megapixel camera phones as well as two and three megapixel camera phones that produce sharp images.
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