[KineJapan] Copyright-free images

[Mark Roberts]

Thanks, Stephen, for this very interesting post.

[…]

> Of course, one can never just follow the Korean example, because Korean politicians/bureaucrats/etc are unique. What works as an agreed industry practise in South Korea could only work in Japan as a policy change. Even then it would need someone heading an organisation like UniJapan to enforce these policies, and not just let them be ignored.

I think you’re absolutely right about this. It is for this reason that I have been trying to determine if there are any laws to cover the present industry policies, or if there are points of conflict with the law. A next question would be: who could take the initiative to revise the laws? I don’t see that it would come from the academic side — on the whole, we are too conservative —, but is rather more likely to come from somebody on the business side who sees that the current policies are failing the industry, or that there is some opportunity to profit from opening the market. There seems to already be ample evidence that the current policies don’t work, but either it is being ignored, or else the major stakeholders have no serious aspirations beyond the domestic market (check the performance of Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp in the TOPIX index to see how well that plan is working out), or perhaps they are simply in denial.  

> In Japan, the exhibitors and agencies are too powerful and are holding back the Japanese film industry, to the great frustration of film producers and sales agencies. But I also think that the Japanese media must take a large share of the blame. Press should refuse to promote films that don't give them access to stills, that ask them not to photograph the third guy from the left at a press conference, etc. In the past twelve years, I've lived in countries with a very competitive press - Taipei and Beijing - who would be fired if they obeyed such instructions.

This also makes sense to me. So, how about Film Business Asia? You are part of the industry media. It sounds like the Japanese policies are already costing you and your staff a disproportionate amount of time, so why not pass that back to the people who are responsible? I understand you are trying to build your brand, but if they refuse to deliver materials the way the Chinese, Korean, or Taiwanese companies do, then it would be reasonable to demote their presence in your publication, or simply stop covering them, no?

M.



> Japan forgot that films, audiences and film culture come first.
> 
> Stephen
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
> On 23 Sep 2014 17:01:50, Mark Roberts <mroberts37 at mail-central.com> wrote:
> Hi Stephen,
> 
> I appreciate hearing about your experiences. True, it’s not directly about academic publishing, but it gets back to the same root cause: the policies and attitudes of rights holders in Japan.
> 
> Out of curiosity, do you know if there are any laws in Japan that support these policies against the reproduction of high-resolution artwork? Where does this come from?
> 
> I am curious because the last time I had to deal with this whole issue, it started when the typesetter claimed we did not have the right to print full-sized DVD stills, and that we “had" to reduce them to 30% size. Again, this is for the low end of academic publishing, so we are not even talking about something as posh as a magazine format. For the publication I was doing, “full-sized” meant 10.5 cm wide on matte-finish paper. The first galleys came back from the typesetter with tiny thumbnail-sized images, which I would have been embarrassed to send to the authors for proofreading, let alone to publish. 
> 
> Imagine the author is discussing a wide-screen landscape shot, both author and editor took pains to get the best resolution possible from a DVD, and then the proofs come back with dinky 2 cm tall images. The captions were dialled down to a 6 point typeface so they would fit. The people in the images were a few mm tall. I asked the typesetter what this was all about but he never came back with any explanation based on law. It was claimed that this was some kind of “industry practice” but it seemed totally arbitrary. I was finally able to overrule this, but now, two years later, it may be necessary to go through the whole discussion again.
> 
> Next, I am curious to hear more about your “socialist” idea for copyright protection outside of Japan. Do such policies exist in other countries, either formally or informally? Any that you cover in Film Business Asia? Do other East Asian countries have organisations that provide what you describe to industry media and/or researchers?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
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