Japanese Music Collection Society Demands Copyright Fees From Music Schools For Teaching Music
from the getting-schooled dept
A brief review of our past stories about copyright collection societies should paint you a fairly complete picture on how these businesses operate. While they pimp themselves as proxies for content creators to police the known world for unauthorized use of that content, as well as operators working to license the use of that content, instead these companies work as syphons sucking money from both sides. They will be genuinely creative in their attempts to find infringement everywhere, liberally interpreting copyright law and what constitutes requirements for various licenses for things like art and music, while at the same time often being found to feign brain-death when it comes to paying the copyright holders' share for the money they collect.
While the tactics used by collection societies regularly flirt with absurdity, it's not terribly often that they behave in a way that will garner broad disdain. One collection society in Japan, though, has decided to cross that line, unilaterally informing music schools that they must now pay up for daring to teach students how to play music. The schools, it seems, are not taking this lying down, having banded together and planning to sue the collection society.
The music school operators said they planned to file a lawsuit against the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) with the Tokyo District Court as early as July, a representative told The Japan Times. In February, JASRAC informed several hundred private music school operators it will begin collecting copyright fees for the use of sheet music under its management.
It claims the use of music to teach piano or other instruments infringes on the “right of performance” under Article 22 of the Copyright Law, which stipulates the composer has the exclusive right to perform their work publicly. JASRAC plans to revise its regulations, enabling the organization to collect 2.5 percent of all annual fees charged by the music schools.
You can immediately see what I mean about liberal interpretations of the law. Only in the mind of someone working at a collection group would a private school teaching a student how to play a song constitute a "public performance." For the collection group to suggest that this liberal interpretation entitles it to 2.5% of the gross revenue of a music school is plainly absurd. Japan's exceptions to copyright law do include exceptions for non-profit educational institutions, but these schools appear to be private. Those exception provisions also appear to be more geared to works like educational software than music.
The schools are trying to get the government to fill in this gap.
In response to JASRAC’s move, Yamaha Music Foundation, Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co. and five other musical school operators initially set up a group advocating for the right to educate using musical works without copyright consent. The group, which now has 350 members, has collected over 10,000 signatures demanding a halt to JASRAC’s plan, which it plans to submit to the culture ministry in July.It remains unclear how many companies will join the lawsuit.
“We want the court to confirm that performances at (music) schools do not need JASRAC’s consent,” said a representative for the group.
For it's part, JASRAC points out that there is no definition of a "public performance" in Japanese copyright law. But that likely doesn't mean that JASRAC can simply interpret what a public performance is any way it likes, including in the teaching of a student. Instead, it seems likely that this dispute will give the Japanese government the impetus to flesh out the law. That will ultimately be a good thing, assuming the government doesn't suddenly lose its mind and decide to pretend that educating students is a public performance of music.
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Filed Under: collection societies, copyright, fees, japan, music teachers, teaching
Companies: jasrac
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I know this will be hidden, but
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Plus of course, they *weren't* previously being paid for this, and they *did* compose the works being taught, so that rather disproves your theory...
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Re: I know this will be hidden, but
Still, one could point to a few thousand years of free culture before copyright came to answer your question, satire or not.
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Re: I know this will be hidden, but
My_Name_Here no more believes anything he writes in this forum than he will shoot himself in the head. I have personally met his kind and they mouth off simply to get a reaction so that they can laugh at all responders.
He will never publicly admit what he truly believes because that will never suit his infantile sense of humour. Actually calling his humour infantile denigrates infants.
In some ways, I suspect his professional life is as a lawyer, but we can't be certain on that. He could be a used car salesman.
However, having any sort of intelligent discussion is never going to happen, not even if you put a gun to his head. I was having a discussion last night on the usefulness of capital punishment to society and even with him, capital punishment would have no useful effect as another like him would pop up immediately he was executed.
So bottom line, just ignore him as this will get on his goat more quickly than anything else.
Have a pleasant day to all.
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Re: I know this will be hidden, but
If the possibility of their work being used for free to teach music is a sufficient dis-incentive for a composer to continue writing music, I don't see this as an issue. We're better off without them.
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"They will be genuinely creative in their attempts to find infringement everywhere, liberally interpreting copyright law and what constitutes requirements for various licenses for things like art and music, while at the same time often being found to feign brain-death when it comes to paying the copyright holders' share for the money they collect"
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Re: I know this will be hidden, but
This is like literally one step away from the "humming a song is infringement" case.
Oh man, sorry you are right!
I forgot that artists's estates are fragile snowflakes which must be protected by means of recurrent payments for 3 generations for work done 120-150 years ago.
Except nowadays it's mostly work for hire and it's not even the artist but a corporation that ends up getting paid. So what are we rewarding again ?
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Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if it's you doing it yourself. A simple plan for the self-obsessed - post something in the hopes that you have a good point for once, either without realising it's dumb or that you're wrong. Then, when you inevitably get called out as an idiot, pretend it's the evil Techdirt staff trying to make you look stupid.
I mean, it's far easier than creating a unique login, coming up with something relevant and intelligent to say, then honestly debating any points where people can refute or disagree with you.
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If I were ever lost alone in the woods, I'd just sing a happy tune.
Because then I could get directions from the collection society representative demanding payment for the public performance.
(And yes, it's a public performance if animals hear it.)
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"banded together", ha, ha! Good pun except I doubt intended, you couldn't resist pointing it out if so.
Music could be taught without copyrighted works, therefore, if using any, it's a choice that should be expensed, like buying an instrument. You don't expect koto makers to work for free, do you? Why should these schools be entitled to use intellectual work-products for free? Why are these greedy schools even charging for lessons? HMM? -- Because people have to eat, basically. Should music-writers starve while music-teachers get paid?
Besides that, PAYING to learn music (rather than the no-cost way my friends did) is a deliberate choice likely intending a career with income resulting, so just tack that on.
Anyhoo, I figure they'll settle for 1.25%.
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Re: "banded together", ha, ha! Good pun except I doubt intended, you couldn't resist pointing it out if so.
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Re: Re: "banded together", ha, ha! Good pun except I doubt intended, you couldn't resist pointing it out if so.
Perhaps not. But here in Canada and elsewhere, it's often been the experience.
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Collecting for the welfare of your ancestors
you are simply assuming none or little will get to artists.
Did you ever visit a music school? Because if you did, you'd knew that most material used there comes from composers that were already dead in the 19th century. Whose music has been in the public domain for decades if not centuries.
And yeah, even if the schools might sometimes use contemporary sheets music, that would be a small amount, making the whole money collecting STILL a rip-off.
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Re: Collecting for the welfare of your ancestors
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Re: "banded together", ha, ha! Good pun except I doubt intended, you couldn't resist pointing it out if so.
If music-writers get paid, then everyone else will starve!
(Absurd slippery slope arguments work in both directions.)
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Re: "banded together", ha, ha! Good pun except I doubt intended, you couldn't resist pointing it out if so.
Only if you wish to limit teaching of music to traditional and folk music. Besides which collection societies have been known to demand payment on t6he basis that some copyrighted work may be performed.
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Re: "banded together", ha, ha! Good pun except I doubt intended, you couldn't resist pointing it out if so.
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Re: "banded together", ha, ha! Good pun except I doubt intended, you couldn't resist pointing it out if so.
I wish you could find a topic that didn't link copyright with greed
If you could find one to disprove the thesis being proposed here, if one existed, you'd have presented it.
Don't expect others to come up with what you demand when you demand the impossible. You just really suck at taking your own advice, huh?
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Already happened in Germany
Most of that music is actually in the public domain, but there have been ongoing shenanigans with the sheet music. Basically the publishers committed fraud to keep them under copyright. You'd need to prove that in a court, of course, for each and every version and song. Not going to happen for 50 Christmas songs mostly from the 19th century.
This is the reaction: Some people set a complete book anew, from the original sheets, to make sure it's free:
https://musik.klarmachen-zum-aendern.de/singen-im-advent
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Even if in some insane way copyright law applied here, I have a hard time seeing how a private music academy couldn't perfectly-well say, "we don't need your music anyhow, we can find plenty of indie stuff lying around, perfectly good for practice work. How much richer the world would be, if even a single child could be not taught to sing in imitation of the Korean version of Elvis or Madonna!
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"What, no! You were supposed to pay us!"
Seems like an easy way to tell the 'collection' agency to pound sand would be to switch to using only public domain and/or other music that's free to use. Not that this will necessarily prevent the agency from trying to shake them down for money, but it would likely make it easier to fight back.
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new course
1 hr each week dedicated to showing kids how advertising , marketing and copyright is EVIL might change there minds.
maybe even setup a school server with torrent tracker for public domain free legal music for the kids
might really give the message
EVEN a THREAT of this might get them to back off
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Alt-Music
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COPYING is STEALING!
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Re: COPYING is STEALING!
Wait, what?
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Re: COPYING is STEALING!
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Re: COPYING is STEALING!
Oh, and:
"If you copy want someone before you has already done, without paying for permission, you're STEALING. PERIOD!"
Come get me.
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