Copyright Extension Moves To Japan
from the ain't-no-such-thing-as-a-public-domain dept
Looks like the latest battle over copyright extension is about to take place in Japan, where the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has vowed to extend certain copyrights. Specifically, he says that posthumous copyrights for compositions should last 70 years, rather than 50. This makes no sense, no matter what basis you judge copyright on. Copyright is supposed to serve a simple purpose: to encourage the creation of new works. It never makes sense to extend copyright on existing works, because those works were already created. In other words, the social "bargain" that was offered in terms of the limited times of protection available were clearly sufficient. But, it's making a pure mockery of the law to specifically single out posthumous copyright protection to be extended because, as far as I know, the dead no longer have any incentives to create new content, no matter how long the copyrights on their old content lasts. The only explanation for doing so is to create a special welfare program for songwriters and composers. But, if that's the case, let's make it clear this is a welfare system, rather than anything to do with copyright.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: copyright, copyright extension, japan
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Boo!
Obviously you've never heard of a ghost writer, have you?
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Re: Boo!
Speaking of, have you head the song?
RJD2 - Ghostwriter on YouTube.
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Re: Re: Boo!
If you're into that kind of sound, definitely check out the Dust Bros. Fight Club soundtrack. It's one of the most interesting experimental albums I've ever heard....
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Re: Re: Boo!
http://questioncopyright.org/ideas_should_spread_freely
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So naive...
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that said, a lot of weirdness in Japanese law can be traced back to US interference.
of course, it's Japan. it's also just outright weird in the first place :D
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Disobey
I would propose: Copyright plus zero years after death, period. Heck, 30 years or death, whichever comes first. If it's truly a form of welfare or pension, make it work like a pension plan, expire the time or split total to a beneficiary after death.
Patents, seven years period, no extensions, nothing.
Trademarks is the only one that defies my awesome ability to cut through the bullshit.
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Re: Disobey
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I was wondering
I would compare this to ex post facto laws which are expressly forbidden by the US constitution (Article 1, Section 9) Though that part of the constitution has been interpreted as only pertaining to criminal offenses.
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Re: I was wondering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft
Tragically, it was done, and it failed. There are a few reasons why it failed -- some of which had to do with how the case was argued, and some of it had to do with the Justices' understanding of copyright law. The book "No Law" has a very depressing, but thorough analysis of how badly the justices screwed that one up.
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My Thoughts
Same with music industry you don't see an artist working at Disney lets say, and then leave to work for Sony. They don't take the work's that were done at Disney with them, because it's all owned by Sony. So saying an artist can't claim money on a song after they died. That is true, but the label is the one who gets the money first then pays the artists their cut just like any other business.
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"I would propose: Copyright plus zero years after death, period. Heck, 30 years or death, whichever comes first. If it's truly a form of welfare or pension, make it work like a pension plan, expire the time or split total to a beneficiary after death."
There is a big problem with something like this.
Say someone wants to use a work that is still under copyright, but they don't want to wait for it to enter the public domain, and they don't want to pay a fee for permission to use the work. Well, the poor artist/copyright owner may be the victim up some kind of 'unfortunate incident' which 'tragically' takes their life, and bingo! the work in question is instantly public domain!
copyright that lasts 25 years after date of publication, regardless of the artists life-span solves this potential problem.
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http://www.cric.or.jp/cric_e/csj/csj.html
And the wiki entry for it :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_copyright_law
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Another link with a compilation from lots of countries and their laws.
Some Japanese case studies about copyright law and how those differs from the U.S.
http://www.softic.or.jp/en/articles/fordham_sugiyama.html
Note that Japan don't have statutory damages, and payments from infringement are very low. That could change.
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Another link with a compilation from lots of countries and their laws.
Some Japanese case studies about copyright law and how those differs from the U.S.
http://www.softic.or.jp/en/articles/fordham_sugiyama.html
Note that Japan don't have statutory damages, and payments from infringement are very low. That could change.
Some interesting blogs that keep track of what happens on that side of the world.
http://asiajin.com/blog/
http://fumijp.blogspot.com/2009/06/copyright-law-amendment.html (this is an article about a law controversial copyright amendment that passed)
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