Problems with DVD

[Stephen Cremin]

Perhaps film companies smell a profit to be made selling to universities 
and are holding out for five figure sums.  Which US university was it 
who paid a fortune to Shochiku to license silent films for their 
students which were actually already legally out of copyright?

Stephen


On Thursday, March 28, 2002, at 02:27 AM, Aaron Gerow wrote:

> I am writing to see if anyone else has experienced some problems in
> purchasing DVDs for university use in Japan.  I teach film, among other
> things, at Yokohama National University in Japan. Every year, I use
> university money to purchase VHS and DVD versions of Japanese films for
> class use. Since I teach courses that include international students, I
> have been especially pleased that some recent DVDs of Japanese films
> manufactured in Japan have included English subtitles and have made a
> point of purchasing those.
>
> However this year, when I tried to purchase about 31 of those DVD, I was
> told by the accounting department which placed the orders that 29 of 
> them
> could not be sold to universities because that would violate copyright
> law.  If it was a VHS copy, it would be OK, I was told, but DVD--the 
> only
> format that has the English subtitles--was no good. This, I thought, was
> not only absurd, but I had faced no such problems with DVDs before, so I
> asked them to try another purchasing route. That however also did not
> work.
>
> I am both furious and confused. First, from my knowledge of Japanese
> copyright law, there is not only no distinction made between DVD and VHS
> soft (after all, I had no problem purchasing 2 of the DVDs), but fair 
> use
> by educational institutions is protected (I can use films in class if
> those who are seeing them are registered students--that is, that the
> screening is not for an indeterminate audience). Second, this clearly
> obstructs film education in Japan, if not research as well. Third, this
> also seems to be a short-sighted measure, where companies, afraid that
> university use will hurt sales to individuals, block the sales to
> universities, but forget that in a culture where young Japanese do not
> watch Japanese films, introducing Japanese cinema to students is one of
> the roles universities can play in supporting the future of Japanese
> film. Fourth, this also obstructs efforts to introduce Japanese culture
> to non-Japanese.
>
> I was wondering if anyone else in Japan had the same experience. If 
> these
> seems to be a general policy, I plan to launch an protest to the
> companies selling the DVDs. Since I personally know some of the 
> directors
> of the films involved, I hope to enlist their help as well.
>
> Aaron Gerow
> Associate Professor
> International Student Center
> Yokohama National University
> 79-1 Tokiwadai
> Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
> JAPAN
> E-mail: gerow at ynu.ac.jp
> Phone: 81-45-339-3170
> Fax: 81-45-339-3171
>