"Laws are not supposed to benefit only one party in business deals," a group of 17 copyright organizations including the Japan Writer's Association and the Japnese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC)a expressed concerns about the "legislation to promote the distribution of digital content" proposed at the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP), Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, at a press conference in Tokyo on May 16, 2007.
The legislation to promote the distribution of digital content was proposed by Nippon Keidanren's Chairman Fujio Mitarai, ITOCHU Corp.'s Chairman Uichiro Niwa, Chairman of ITOCHU Corp. and two other participants at the CEFP's 4th meeting on February 27, 2007. They proposed that the government should establish new legislations including "more simplified, convenient procedure that could replace pre-authorization by each right owner" in a bid to promote the distribution of digital contents.
The group commented on this proposal, "A preoccupation that Japanese copyright laws are strict seems to have spread across government and financial circles. We suspect such an idea has also been escalated by a misinterpretation that digital contents are used freely on the Internet based on the 'fair use' concept in the US" (Chairman Masahiro Mita).
The fair use is a doctrine that allows limited use of copyrighted materials without requiring permission only when the use is perceived as fair based on four factors such as the purpose of the content use and how much the use curtails sales of the original material. "Quite a few cases actually develop to lawsuits in the US after copyrighted materials are used without permission and end up compensation orders. It is not that Japan is the only strict country. Pre-authorization of copyrights is generally adopted across the world," Mita said.
The group indicated a view that content use will increase by building up a database and a portal site, in which users can search for content licensing conditions and applications, and boosting user-convenience. Kazuo Shiina, a member of the Center for Performers' Rights Administration, Japan Council of Performers' Organizations, said, "We hope the government will start preparing environments, in which contents are tied up with information about right owners. It should be questioned if legislation may benefit only one party (content users) in business deals," and indicated a plan to make a proposal to the Agency for Cultural Affairs as soon as May 17, 2007.
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