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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Thanks for the links, Shirley.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I would have thought that more than one international
media organisation would have had this judgement translated. I'll dig
around.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>As for the Ozu films, it can be reported simply. It
is, alas, hardly unusual, that there is no translation or subtitling credit on
the prints of the first three films I have seen in the season at the BFI.
They were all NFC prints with english subtitles, but about the first bit of
subtitling was to reserve copyright for the subtitled prints to Shochiku, from
dates in the early 80s.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>So the precise linkage in law (and whether the
linkage is both ways) between creative work and authorship becomes
interesting.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>What I have not checked, and will try and do so, is if the
cans or their documentation give any further details. I mention this
because, on the occasions I have asked before [note the wording] 'who did the
translation', the answer has always been 'The subtitles were done by John
Minchinton'. In interview, John Minchinton has said that the documentation
for all his work says 'Subtitles copyright John Minchinton and XXXX'
['XXXX' being his particular language collaborator]. My interview with his
Japanese language collaborator revealed that even she was unaware of this. I do
not know how legally robust such an assertion is, but it would presumably hold
good against those who knew of it., if it had a determined date. John
Minchinton, incidentally, has subtitled some two thousand films.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>By the way, if anyone could supply me with a contact
address for Donald Richie, off-list, beyond that we used for get-well cards from
David Bordwell's blog, I would appreciate it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Roger</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>----- Original Message ----- </FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>From: "Shirley Field" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:field.shirley@gmail.com"><FONT
face=Arial>field.shirley@gmail.com</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>To: <</FONT><A
href="mailto:KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu"><FONT
face=Arial>KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu</FONT></A><FONT
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 5:09 AM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Subject: Re: Copyright and authors</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial>> Roger - If you
wouldn't mind elaborating, I would like more about the<BR>> Ozu situation of
which you speak.<BR>> <BR>> Toho won their lawsuit in July. Though they
didn't get nearly as much<BR>> as they would have liked (Cosmo Coordinate was
ordered to pay $78,127<BR>> rather than the $1.3 million Toho asked for), the
court did rule that<BR>> the movies should be protected until 38 years after
Kurosawa's death.<BR>> All I can find right now in English is a Variety
article on the case:<BR>> </FONT><A
href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006892.html?categoryid=19&cs=1&nid=2562"><FONT
face=Arial>http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006892.html?categoryid=19&cs=1&nid=2562</FONT></A><FONT
face=Arial>.<BR>> (I don't guess anyone knows why news sites like Mainichi
and Yomimuri<BR>> remove their news articles so quickly?)<BR>> <BR>>
You can read the court proceedings here:<BR>> </FONT><A
href="http://bizlaw.jp/hanketsu/2009/07/206849.html"><FONT
face=Arial>http://bizlaw.jp/hanketsu/2009/07/206849.html</FONT></A><BR><FONT
face=Arial>> <BR>> All the best,<BR>> Shirley Field<BR>> <BR>>
<BR>> On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 11:47 AM, Roger Macy <</FONT><A
href="mailto:macyroger@yahoo.co.uk"><FONT
face=Arial>macyroger@yahoo.co.uk</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial>>
wrote:<BR>>> Back in March 2008, Aaron was giving us an interesting
account of Toho<BR>>> asserting individual author's rights in an attempt
to extend copyright on<BR>>> the films of Kurosawa Akira, against the
weight of the 1971 copyright laws<BR>>> [''Kurosawa films and copyright
suit'].<BR>>> I'd be interested in any update on that, as well as whether
anyone had an<BR>>> opinion as to whether Toho's assertion, is legally
compatible with<BR>>> Shochiku's of renewed copyright on Ozu silent films
as from the 80s, on<BR>>> their english-subtitled prints, which do not
mention the name of any<BR>>> translator, subtitler or any other author of
the new work.<BR>>> Happy New Year,<BR>>> Roger</FONT></BODY></HTML>