[KineJapan] Copyright in Japan, Again

[Markus Nornes]

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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>
>


-- 
*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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