] Japanese bookstores are set to launch a national campaign
] to stop so-called "digital shoplifting" by customers
] using the lastest camera-equipped mobile phones.
]
] The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association says the
] practice is "information theft" and it wants it stopped.

This is a very interesting situation. On one hand, I don't think that magazine companies should worry too much about the "information theft" of one picture. However, if people were taking pictures of entire articles and sending them, I could see their concern.

The whole point comes down to the fact that the technology industry continues to grow at a rate which most other industries can't cope with. As technology advances, the free flow of information grows. Companies that understand this paradigm and embrace it, will prosper. Those companies that choose to ignore or combat the paradigm, will falter, and die.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan's 'digital shoplifting' plague