Resale of videos vs. games

[Aaron Gerow]

In a decision that has interesting implications for the legal definition 
of cinema in Japan, a Tokyo court yesterday ruled in favor of the 
defendants in a case in which video game makers sued companies over 
selling used video games.

Since there is a government regulation prohibiting the resale of movies 
on video and LD--i.e., the sale of used videos--under Japanese copyright 
law, the video game maker Enix sued some toy stores that were selling 
used video games by arguing that the provision regarding films also 
covered video games.

The court, however, ruled against Enix by arguing that video games are 
not movies.  The court offered the following as its definition of a film: 
1) Expressing feelings or ideas by selecting set images and arranging 
them in a set order; 2) The same order of images is as a rule replayed.  
The court argued that, since the order and content of images in a video 
game are the result of the player's manipulation, a video game cannot be 
considered to express the feelings or ideas of the producer.

I do have questions for people.  First, I was not familiar with the 
provision regarding the resale of film videos and LDs, in part because 
there are lots of stores, including rental stores, around that sell used 
videos.  Are these then all illegal?  Does anyone know the specific 
regulation and can cite a source?  What was the reasoning behind this 
prohibition?

I was also wondering about other countries.  I know Reel.com sells used 
videos, so is this practice permissable in the U.S.?  What about other 
countries?

Any ideas or comments?



Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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