Japanese industry and government bodies are reportedly working on a new system aimed at preventing mobile-phone users from illegally downloading music.

According to a Sept. 5 story in the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry and the telecom and music industries could introduce such a system as soon as April 2010. It’s being billed as the first such system in the world.

Said to be working together on the system are local labels body the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), the Telecommunications Carriers Association and the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.

The report could not be immediately confirmed.

The system would use a central server to check song-ID information sent by users’ mobile phones each time they download a song. Users will be sent a warning message if the server finds the song has been illegally downloaded. Continued illegal downloading will result in downloads being “terminated,” or the user’s handset made incapable of playing back the track once it’s been downloaded, according to the Yomiuri.

The RIAJ estimates that 407 million master-ringtone and full-length tracks were illegally downloaded to mobile phones in Japan in 2008, up from 399 million in 2007.

The report follows a recent amendment to Japan’s Copyright Law that for the first time makes it illegal for private individuals to download copyrighted material from the Internet that has been uploaded without rights-holders' permission.

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