Amendments to Japan's Copyright Act came into force in January this year. The changes are designed to promote the circulation of electronic copyrighted contents and comprise three parts: 1) amendments for freer use of copyrighted contents on the internet; 2) amendments to prevent circulation of copyright-infringing goods/contents; and 3) amendments to broaden the opportunities for disabled people to use copyrighted information.
Regarding 1), the reproduction of copyrighted materials in internet search results has been explicitly legalised under certain conditions, including: a) if the copyright holder notifies on the internet that they do not wish to subject their copyrighted material to search services, the reproduction of such material will constitute copyright infringement and b) search service providers must cease reproduction if they know of the existence of a previous illegal reproduction. In addition, the procedures for using copyrighted contents that were broadcast on TV on the internet and whose owner is unknown have been stipulated. Further, the production of the electronic archive by Japan's National Diet Library (NDL) has been explicitly legalised. Before this amendment, only books that have actually been damaged could be electronically archived, however, this amendment enables The Library to do it as soon as it accepts a book. Furthermore, posting a picture of the art objects for sale on the internet has been explicitly legalised under certain conditions.
The second set of amendments stipulate that offer for sale (including advertising) of copyright-infringing goods on the internet on purpose is an infringement. This infringement will be subject to a criminal penalty. Before this amendment, only the sale of such goods was illegal. In addition, reproduction (including downloading) of copyright-infringing content on purpose has explicitly been made an infringement even though such reproduction is for private use. This infringement, by contrast, will not subject to a criminal penalty.
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| Yoshikazu Iwase |
Anderson Mori & Tomotsune
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Japan
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yoshikazu.iwase@amt-law.com
www.andersonmoritomotsune.com