[KineJapan] Copyright in Japan, Again

Tue Jul 23 16:09:22 EDT 2013

Another thing to consider here is the "Investor-State Dispute Settlement clause" (ISDS) in the TPP. What this means, in effect, is that if foreign corporations claim that Japanese law are negatively impacting their business, they can sue the Japanese government. The decision, however, will be decided by a special court in the WTO.

So, if the MPAA found Japanese copyright law to be too permissive, they could sue for damages and under the terms of the TPP, the Japanese government could be found on the losing end by the WTO.

The idea is to provide foreign corporations with a means to compel member states to change laws they find disagreeable, through a system of "offshore private investment tribunals". A large body of legal experts have warned that this will lead to "a massive increase in corporate claims against attempts by governments to create environmental and natural resource policies". I would suspect the same for copyright claims.

Interestingly, while people debate whether or not Abe Shinzo is an ethnic nationalist, his party is pushing for this trade agreement that will have the effect of stripping the nation of its economic sovereignty in the sphere of international trade.

M

On Jul 24, 2013, at 1:22 AM, Markus Nornes wrote:

> A whole bunch of questions arose in my mind. Here are a couple. 
> 
> What would the ban on parallel importation mean for Asia libraries? They couldn't purchase books for their collections without permission from the copyright holder?
> 
> It sounds like "transformation" and fair use are built into Japanese copyright law. Anyone have a handle on that? Does Japanese law have anything like the "four factors" guiding fair use in the US? Is there a decent gloss on this?
> 
> I ask partly because at Yamagata, Asako Fujioka and I are inviting Gordon Quinn (of Kartemquin Films) to talk about the incredible success of the American fair use movement. (This is in a big program on documentary ethics.) 
> 
> Markus
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 9:32 AM, Mark Roberts <mroberts37 at mail-central.com> wrote:
> With the LDP victory in the election this past Sunday, Japan is now closer to entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
> 
> As many of you are aware, the TPP will have very significant effects on different sectors of the Japanese economy, including cinema.
> 
> The TPP negotiations are taking place in secret, though representatives of over 600 corporations have private access. Chapters of the text on IP and copyright have been leaked, and groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have published materials to clarify the impact. EFF believes that revisions to copyright law will also impact fair use.
> 
> What Will Japan's Entry Into TPP Mean for Internet Users?
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/07/what-will-japans-entry-tpp-mean-internet-users
> 
> New Leaked TPP Text Puts Fair Use at Risk
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/08/new-leaked-tpp-puts-fair-use-risk
> 
> Excerpt:
> 
> [T]here are three things in the TPP that threaten to change Japanese copyright law for the worse:
> 
> First, the TPP calls for lengthened copyright term protection that would run roughshod over previous Japanese rejection of such extensions. Just as the U.S. attempted to do previously, the agreement would extend copyright terms from 50 years after the life of the author to 70 years after the life of the author. For copyright terms based on the creation date, TPP would also extend it another 25 years to 95 years, or up to 120 for corporate owned works.
> 
> Second, it bans parallel importation, meaning it would require authorization from the copyright owner to import goods even if those goods were purchased legally in another country. This would greatly impact the sale and availability of content, such as DVDs or software, if the copyright owner decides they’d like monopoly control of distribution across national borders.
> 
> Finally and most crucially, TPP threatens to upend a principle in Japanese law called shinkokuzai, whereby crimes are not prosecuted without a formal complaint from the victim. In addition, TPP would impose statutory penalties for infringement even if there’s no proof of actual harm. This could lead to an even greater crackdown on file sharing and online, fan-generated comics that are core to the anime community.
> 
> The combination of all of these new restrictions has lead Ken Akamatsu to describe the TPP as “destroy[ing]” the market of self-published transformative anime works, and diminishing the manga industry as a whole. The long fight such communities faced in battled local copyright proposals would be undermined by changes being enforced undemocratically through the secret trade agreement.
> 
> Opinions?
> 
> ----
> 
> Mark Roberts
> Research Fellow, UTCP
> http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/data/mark_roberts/index_en.php
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Markus Nornes
> Chair, Department of Screen Arts and Cultures
> Professor of Asian Cinema, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
> Professor, School of Art & Design
> 
> Department of Screen Arts and Cultures
> 6348 North Quad
> 105 S. State Street
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285
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