DMCA & copyright notice

Discover Asian World is an independent reference archive covering drama, film, music and culture across Asia. It is a database with writing around it. It does not host, stream, mirror, embed or link to unlicensed copies of any film, series, episode or recording, and it never has.

This page says exactly what appears on the site, where every picture on it came from, what we claim and what we do not, and how to have something taken down. If you hold rights in anything here and want it gone, section 5 takes a few minutes and we do not argue.

1. What is published, and how much of it

The archive publishes one poster per title and one portrait per person. That is the whole of it.

• No production stills, no screen captures, no frame grabs, no galleries, no wallpapers.
• No downloadable files, no full resolution originals, no right click gallery, no bulk export, no image search endpoint, no hotlinking endpoint.
• Images are displayed at reduced size, inside a record, beside original editorial writing about the work they depict.
• Nothing here is sold, licensed, sublicensed or printed on anything. No image on this site is offered to anyone else for any use.

The purpose of the picture is identification and commentary. A reader looking for a drama recognises it by its poster, and a profile without a face is a list of dates. The image is there to do that job and no other, which is why there is one of them and why it is small.

2. Where the pictures come from

Every image on a record carries two separate facts, and both are printed on the record itself rather than buried on this page: the file source, meaning where the file was found, and the rights holder, meaning the studio, broadcaster, distributor or agency that owns the work. The rights holder is never this site, and it is never the catalogue a file passed through.

Promotional artwork issued for publicity

A poster and a cast portrait are made to be seen. They are issued by the studio, broadcaster or distributor releasing the work, sent to press and platforms, and put into public film catalogues so that anybody writing about the work can identify it. That is the material this archive uses, and it uses it for the purpose it was issued for.

The files are located through publicly accessible film and television catalogues, TMDB among them. Those catalogues hold and index the artwork, they do not own it: the rights stay with the studio, broadcaster or distributor that released the work, and a file passing through a catalogue transfers no right in it to the catalogue or to us. We claim nothing in it either.

This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by or certified by TMDB or any other catalogue.

Material sent to us

Distributors, broadcasters, publicists, agencies and management sometimes send press kits, promotional artwork, stills and approved portraits for use. Where a record carries material supplied that way, it is credited to the party that supplied it. Sending material to this site for promotional use is taken as permission to publish it in that context. It is not taken as a transfer of ownership, and it can be withdrawn at any time by writing to the address in section 5.

Artwork we make ourselves

Decorative artwork on guides, features, food, myth and travel pages is generated by this site using AI image tools, and it belongs to this site. It is illustration, not documentation. It never depicts a real, identifiable person, it is never presented as a photograph of a real event, place or dish, and it is never used on a record about a person.

3. What this site claims, and what it does not

• We claim no ownership of any poster, portrait, logo, trademark, title or other material belonging to a studio, broadcaster, distributor, agency or artist.
• We grant no rights in that material to anybody else. A reader may not take an image from this site and use it elsewhere on the strength of it appearing here.
• We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or authorised by any studio, broadcaster, streaming platform, agency, label or artist mentioned on this site. A profile is a reference entry, not an endorsement in either direction.
• Names, titles, logos and trademarks appear for identification only and remain the property of their owners.
• Where a work is quoted, the quotation is short, attributed and used to comment on the work.
• Promotional artwork being widely circulated does not put it in the public domain, and this site does not pretend otherwise. It is used here for identification and commentary, at one image per record, and it stays the property of whoever released it.

The use described above is intended to sit within the limits that copyright law allows for identification, reporting, criticism and commentary, which different countries call fair use, fair dealing or quotation. We do not treat that as a licence and we do not rely on it as an argument: if a rights holder objects, the material comes down whether or not we think we were entitled to use it.

4. Facts, likeness and the record of a person

Profiles collect facts that are already public: professional credits, birth dates where they are on the public record, height and other biographical details published by agencies or reliable outlets, and the work a person has appeared in. They are compiled from published sources and each record carries its sources.

• Private life, relationships, health, finances, family members who are not public figures and anything else a person has not put on the public record are not published here, however widely they circulate elsewhere.
• Rumour, speculation and unattributed claims are not published as fact. If we cannot source it, the field stays empty.
• A person, an agency or a representative can ask for any detail on a profile to be corrected or removed. See section 6.

5. Taking something down

If you hold rights in material on this site, or you are authorised to act for the rights holder, write to the address below. A complete notice is acted on quickly. An incomplete one cannot be processed, so please include all of it.

• Your name, your title and your contact details, and the rights holder you act for if it is not you
• Identification of the work concerned
• The exact URL of the page, and which image or passage on it
• A statement that the use is not authorised by the rights holder, its agent or the law
• A statement that the information in the notice is accurate, made in good faith
• Your signature, electronic or physical

6. Counter notice, and asking for something back

If material was removed in error or through misidentification, send a counter notice with the location the material occupied, a good faith statement that the removal was a mistake, your contact details and your signature. Material may be restored once the counter notice has been reviewed. Nothing is restored while a notice is still in dispute.

7. Repeat infringement

Where a contributor is the subject of repeated valid notices, their access is permanently revoked. The archive has a small, named editorial team and no open submissions, so in practice this clause protects readers from a problem that has not arisen rather than describing one that has.

8. Other kinds of complaint

Not everything that is wrong with a page is a copyright matter. Each of these has its own route and all of them reach the same inbox.

• A fact is wrong, a date is off, a credit is missing or a record is out of date, see the corrections policy
• You want a record added, or a person or title covered, write to us
• You are a distributor or publicist and want to send material for use, write to us
• Advertising, sponsorship or a commercial enquiry, see the advertising disclosure
• Anything about data held on you, see the privacy policy

9. Advertising and affiliate links

This site carries advertising and may carry affiliate links. Neither buys a place on a page, a rating or coverage of anything. The full statement is on the advertising disclosure.

10. Changes to this page

When this page changes, the date at the top of it changes with it. The previous version can be supplied on request.