A crime for the ages.

The Japan Magazine Publishers Association unveiled a campaign in early July to put an end to what it calls digimanbiki, or digital shoplifting. The publishers say people have been using their camera-phones to take pictures of magazine pages in bookstores. The digital shoplifters usually shoot a picture of a page with important information on it--say a train guide or a recipe or a particularly interesting photo-and leave the bookstore without buying the magazine. The association will launch a campaign that equates this sort of act with shoplifting.

The publishers say this new campaign against digimanbiki won't affect the time-honored tradition of tachiyomi, where shoppers stand around a bookstore for what seems like hours and read. Those people, the association contends, may end up buying the magazine. (By the way, if you're reading this at a bookstore, please go directly to the register and plunk down your [yen] 800. Thanks.)