Mobile music business in Japan and Korea: Copyright management institutions as a reverse salient

This paper examines the development process of music businesses on mobile Internet in Japan and Korea, two leading countries in the world that have been enjoying rapid growth of mobile Internet businesses. Based on the 'Large Technological System' perspective (Hughes, T.P., 1983. Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1890-1930. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore; Hughes, T.P., 1989. The evolution of large technological systems. In: Wiebe, E.B., Hughes, T.P., Pinch, T. (Eds.), The Social Construction of Technological Systems. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 51-82), this paper sees music copyright management institutions as a 'reverse salient' in the large technological system of mobile music businesses. We argue that the development of mobile music business has been and will continue to be dependent on how to revise copyright management institutions in accordance with changes and advancement of technologies and other sub-components in the large technological system.