Member Profile - Noboru Murakami, INTERNET Co. Japan

Noboru Murakami is the Founder and CEO of INTERNET Co. Japan. He is also the Director of Event Promotion and Vice Chairman of IMSTA Japan. Noboru strongly believes in IMSTA’s goal of educating software users and does his fair share to accomplish this vital task in Japan. We had an opportunity to chat with Noboru to get his feedback about IMSTA.

Noboru-San, could you please tell us a bit about yourself? 

My name is Noboru Murakami, the founder and CEO of INTERNET Co. which was established in 1988. The company develops and sells music software in Japan primarily to consumers. Our products include:

“Singer Song Writer 8.0 / 8.0VS Win” and “Singer Song Writer Lite (Win)” DAW software, “MIXTURE Win” a loop sequencer that handles MIDI and audio seamlessly, “Soundit Win / Mac” a wave editing software, and “Opus” a multi-track audio authoring software. I am also involved in the programming of most of the INTERNET Co. products. I have been involved in this business for about 25 years, mostly selling synthesizers, developing and selling products for another software sequencer company, and creating music.     <<Noboru Murakami

How did you get involved with music and do you play an instrument?

I started playing the guitar when I was 12 or 13 years old and joined a band once I was comfortable with my skills. With the birth of MIDI, I became very interested in hardware sequencers and after a while, computers were able to control MIDI so started to get involved with computers. Recently, I collect vintage guitars as a hobby, mostly custom color 50s Stratocasters.

Do you still find time to play music?

Yes. I find time to play the guitar for a few hours each week. I also play and record music to check our company’s products.

How does INTERNET Co. approach the software piracy problem?

We sell 30,000 to 40,000 units of software (around 50,000 including OEM) per year, and I feel that a great number of illegal copies are circulating in the market. In fact, we get constant registrations for the same serial numbers. But we don’t use USB protection devices and only use CD copy protection. It’s true that USB hardware protection is effective in preventing piracy compared to CD copy protection, but it also sacrifices user-friendliness of the products for valid users. The cost issues will further put a burden on valid users as they will ultimately have to pay for it. Our company’s target is mostly the consumer market, and considering the price range for our products, we choose to use CD copy protection and registration to prevent illegal copying.

Also, our policy is to focus more on providing benefits to valid users rather than to focus on copy protection methods. For example, we opened an online support center that generates specific pages for each user dynamically, so users can view their personal information such as Q&A histories and upgrade info.  Telephone support is also available for registered users only.

What are some reasons that you joined IMSTA?

I agree with IMSTA’s policy and believe public education campaigns have more significance than punishments such as legal proceedings.

How can a company such as INTERNET Co. benefit from its membership in IMSTA?

Once IMSTA becomes more popular, members of IMSTA will be able to develop a deeper trust and cooperation with retailers and users. Also, when public education campaigns help reduce piracy, it will generate profits and we can reinvest this profit to develop better products. This would stimulate the whole industry. I believe that it would bring great benefit to both the companies and legitimate users if piracy is reduced. I think the ties between the members of IMSTA are important too. It is good for networking.

Anything you want to say to the pirates out there reading this?

If you love music, and love the music you make, then make music by doing the right thing and respect other people’s creations. Piracy will ruin everything, including the music itself.

INTERNET Co. Team

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