Judge Tokiyasu Fujita of the Third petty bench of the Supreme Court has upheld two lower court rulings and rejected an appeal from Paramount Pictures and local distributor Tohokushinsha Film Corporation.

Paramount was trying to stop the sale of cut-price DVDs of the 1953 Western movie Shane by arguing that the film was still under copyright.

Japan extended its copyright protection for films from 50 to 70 years on January 1 2004. But the Court decided that films made in 1953 were already in the public domain by January 1 2004, and therefore not covered by the extension.

Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs had stated in its guidelines that films made in 1953 would still be under copyright. The Agency, which drafted the copyright extension, argued that 24:00 on December 31 2003 was the same as 00:00 on January 1 2004. Thus, when the new copyright term came into effect, films made in 1953 were still under copyright.

The Tokyo District Court, Higher Court and Supreme Court have all ruled that there was no overlap between the two days.

Describing the legal arguments as “very clear”, Kozo Yabe, a partner of Yuasa & Hara, said the decision “shows that bureaucrats should be more careful when drafting new laws and should consult lawyers”.

In September last year, the holders of the copyright on Charlie Chaplin’s films used an old Japanese copyright law dealing with the protection given to the author of a film to prevent the sale of cheap DVDs.