[News Terms] What Is Copyright? Profit-Making 'Fast Movie'

Ultra-Compressed Videos Lasting 10 Minutes to 2 Hours
Demand Surges Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Japanese YouTuber Arrested on Copyright Infringement Charges

‘Fast Movie’ refers to review video content that summarizes a single movie or multiple episodes of a drama series. It shares the same concept as fast food, which is prepared instantly upon order, and fast fashion, which quickly produces and distributes clothing. The advantage is that viewers can consume desired video content quickly with minimal time investment. Fast Movies compress the content into a very short duration, ranging from about 10 minutes to around 2 hours, and include narration or subtitles. They also provide brief explanations of characters and key elements, offering a productive viewing experience. This is quite different from ‘spoilers’ that reveal the ending.

The meaning of ‘Fast Movie’ changed somewhat before and after COVID-19. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, in South Korea, Hollywood movies from the United States were often called Fast Movies. In the 2000s, the Korean film industry saw strong demands for the Screen Quota System (mandatory screening of domestic films). Hollywood movies were likened by some in the industry to fast food?heavily fueled by enormous capital and technology, fast-paced, and thus unhealthy?and were called ‘Fast Movies.’ This was in contrast to the relatively weaker domestic film industry ecosystem. At that time, the term Fast Movie was not associated with copyright issues.

YouTuber operating a domestic fast movie channel [Photo by YouTube].jpg

The controversy over copyright infringement began in Japan. Since 2020, there has been a surge in demand for video content that edits a full-length movie down to about 10 minutes without permission. This was because, as COVID-19 spread widely, more people enjoyed movies at home. This content was called Fast Eiga (ファスト映?) or Fast Cinema (ファストシネマ) in Japan.

Consequently, the number of YouTube channels specializing in Fast Movies also increased. The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), composed of Japanese film companies and animation producers, reported that as of June 2021, 55 specialized channels had posted over 2,100 Fast Movies. These included popular Japanese works such as ‘Attack on Titan’ as well as foreign titles like ‘Spider-Man.’ It was estimated that the operators of these channels earned illegal advertising revenue amounting to millions of yen (tens of millions of Korean won) per month.

The Japanese film industry felt a strong sense of crisis over the Fast Movie issue amid the overall difficulties caused by COVID-19. CODA took a tough stance. On June 23, 2021, three operators of Fast Movie channels were arrested for copyright law violations for the first time. The total number of views of the infringing works posted on these channels exceeded 10 million, and the estimated damages amounted to over 2 billion yen (approximately 19 billion Korean won). In November of the same year, the Sendai District Court in Japan sentenced all defendants to imprisonment. This case widely publicized the illegality of Fast Movies.

[Photo by AI Image]

South Korea faces a situation similar to Japan. Numerous YouTubers have created Fast Movies of popular dramas such as ‘Squid Game,’ ‘Casino,’ and ‘Moving.’ However, there is little news of domestic production companies or copyright holders filing lawsuits against these YouTubers. Various perspectives exist on this issue, including the limitations of individual monitoring of copyright-infringing videos, insufficient proactive measures by platform companies, and the promotional effects of Fast Movies.