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Forum - View topicINTEREST: Lawmaker Yamada Explains Implications of Proposed Copyright Guidelines on Cosplay Income
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8501 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Japan needs a Fair Use exception.
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Juno016
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I've been following Yamada Taro margainally since his election and he's actually a very good-faith politician with an unusual focus on anime, manga, games, toku, and artistic entertainment in general. He's been the government's go-to for matters relating copyright in the fandom and dealing with stingy newly-implemented copyright laws (TPP stipulations) in Japan, as well as dealing with censorship and suppressing marketing of certain types of work for the Olympics (his election predicated on protecting freedom of expression in art and so he's been trying to find a way to comply with the party's demands without restricting expression in things like manga on the shelves). He's a big fan of these things himself and his words here reflect that well, I believe. Despite the backlash, I'm pretty confident he's going to use this as an opportunity NOT to add restrictions to cosplay, but to make the current restrictions more set in stone/clear so that cosplayers understand their rights and how to avoid potential lawsuits.
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xxmsxx
 Posts: 601 |
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Can someone who knows about the history of Fair Use tell me where and how did this emerge in the first place? It may assist in understanding why Japan does not have a Fair Use exception.
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2904 |
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@Juno016
ah, that explains the random middle finger to jasrac. it sounds to me like he wants to protect the cosplayers too, like if you get permission that the permission does not get retroactively taken off, for example. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10460 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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[note: long rambling answer ahead, mostly writing this off the top of my head with no organization or editing. Just researching to find citations to back stuff up and make sure that I'm remembering it all correctly.] Most countries don't have fair use. Most people equate "Fair Use" with "copyright exceptions," but this isn't quite accurate. Fair Use Doctrine is a special way of looking at copyright exception. It's also a whole other discussion that I will get into later... History of Fair Use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#History Or if you want to read a 45 page paper about the history of fair use: https://lawecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1157&context=facpubs The Berne Convention is the primary international treaty for copyright. WIPO, TRIPS and TPP are important, but everything you need to know about international copyright agreements for the purpose of casual discussion is the Berne Convention. You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention, or read the full text here: https://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/ Japan is a signatory of the Berne Convention, which requires it's signatories to have specific exceptions to copyright law, in the United States these are called "fair use" The term "Fair Use" is American, so the first reason other countries don't have "fair use," is because they just call it something different ("Fair Dealings" in many countries). But the difference between "Fair Use" and "copyright exceptions" is more than just a name. I'll bring up "Fair Use Doctrine" later (ie: over the weekend, because this is gonna be long).
Japan has implemented the copyright exceptions required by the Berne Convention, but doesn't call them "Fair Use." So when people say that "Japan doesn't have fair use," this is true because 1) Japan doesn't call it fair use (I'm going to keep kicking this horse), and 2) Japan hasn't implemented all the exceptions that exist in some countries. However it's misleading because Japan isn't some sort of oddity here, and they do have all the exceptions that they are required to have. Here's an excerpt of the Japanese exceptions:
Subsection 5 of the Copyright law of Japan is basically their version of fair use. It's much longer than the US Fair Use clause. The most notable item missing from Japan's copyright exceptions versus the exceptions that exist in many other countries is parody; Japan has no parody exception. A parody exception to copyright is not required by the Berne conventions, but many nations have implemented one. Overall, Japan isn't some sort of exception here. Each country handles copyright exceptions differently. US Fair Use Doctrine is fairly unique and extremely flexible. As another example, you can read this article about French copyright law, section 7 of that article explains all the exceptions to copyright that exist in France. They don't call it "Fair Use" either. So when people keep saying "Japan doesn't have fair use," they aren't wrong... but they are probably ignorant, unless they truly understand the difference between fair use doctrine and copyright exceptions (in which case they would say "America is special, they have fair use.") |
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Ryujin99
 Posts: 199 |
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Seeing the first several posts on this topic, I'd be really interested to see an article specifically comparing and contrasting the Japanese copyright system with that of other countries (particularly the US in my case, but it'd be interesting to see the differences between other countries as well).
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VerQuality
 Posts: 138 |
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On the one hand, this is an obvious grey area that could use a lot of clarification for the digital age, and Yamada Taro seems like a politician with a good head on his shoulders. On the other hand, I have absolutely no confidence in any change in copyright not hugely benefiting the established, corporate players that can afford the strongest lobbyists.
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10460 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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It's an interesting idea. A general comparison of "Japan to the World," would be way outside our scope, and way to big for a single article. But a comparison of Japan to the USA would be feasible, of course, we would only focus on the aspects that are topical to our readers. We wouldn't look at all the differences in copyright, just the differences that affect anime industry and fans. Maybe over time we could create new versions for other countries. |
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