<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px; ">Toho is suing the DVD distributor that put out those cheap Kurosawa DVDs to the tune of $1.2 mil. We have been following this controversy a bit on KineJapan, so I thought I'd post this. </span><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#444444" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#444444" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;">I find this pretty perplexing. The argument as it's described in the press is that the films fall under the pre-1971 laws, which extend protection 38 years beyond the death of the "author" (2038 in Kurosawa's case). The distributor has been operating under the post-1971 law, which pegs open season at 50 years after release; they've put out Kurosawa's first 8 films. Tokyo District Court took Toho's side, and the distributor is appealing. But Toho is going ahead with a suit. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#444444" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#444444" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;">So what I don't get is how this is actually in the studio's interest. They have historically resisted treating directors as authors, right? On the face of it, this appears to be a gambit to extend copyright as far out as possible. But at the same time, it would seem to expose them to demands for profits from directors, either from the past or in contracts from here on out. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#444444" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#444444" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;">Does anyone understand the logic here? </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#444444" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#444444" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;">Markus</span></font></div></body></html>