[KineJapan] Copyright-free images

[Mark Roberts]

Dear Roberta,

On Sep 10, 2014, at 10:01 PM, Maria Roberta Novielli wrote:

> I would use some stills taken from DVDs, but I wonder if the rights belong to the producers of the DVDs or to the original production companies, if still existing. 

My understanding has been that the production company is the rights holder, not the distributor. There is, as you note, a question in the case of production companies that no longer exist. I gather that the rights often go to the director or his/her family, but I am not sure about the law on this. For example, the ATG films are not old enough to be public domain, but the production company is defunct. What is their status?

There is thus a lingering question in my mind about whether it is really necessary to go through the formality of contacting the rights holder. I have heard via the Copyright Research and Information Center of Japan (http://www.cric.or.jp/), that this is "recommended", even if it merely to inform them that you intend to use DVD stills in a publication. Of course, if the production company no longer exists, it may not be so simple to do this.

It would be helpful to know how to handle this situation, and especially what to tell a publisher. 

I hope somebody on KineJapan more knowledgable than I can weigh in on this.

Mark
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