I was reading that Japan may increase the copyright term from life+50 to life+70. And as usual with these things, existing copyrights would be extended.

The video from Aozora Bunko seems to suggest the possibility that expired copyrights may be revived. Are the lawmakers seriously considering this? Or is it just "here is what things would now be like if the copyright term had always been so"?

http://www.aozora.gr.jp/shomei/english.html (3:55-4:35)

Quick!

Download
EVERYTHING

My webspider is at work. Would be sad to see this treasure vanish.

Nagareboshi Wrote:My webspider is at work. Would be sad to see this treasure vanish.

I hope you'll post a torrent or something of that.

It's really sad that people think an author's family should be rewarded for their dead relatives' work 70 years after they die.

At best, I would say it should only apply to spouses during their own lifetime due to the nature of families. Kids need to get off their asses and go work.

wccrawford Wrote:

Nagareboshi Wrote:My webspider is at work. Would be sad to see this treasure vanish.

I hope you'll post a torrent or something of that.

But of course i will.

wccrawford Wrote:It's really sad that people think an author's family should be rewarded for their dead relatives' work 70 years after they die.

At best, I would say it should only apply to spouses during their own lifetime due to the nature of families. Kids need to get off their asses and go work.

I have to agree with you, and i would even go a step further, to say that books should be available for free once the person who wrote them is dead. I mean how likely is it, that someone is buying such old books, other than if he's a collector? That is, if we take the death +50 rule into consideration, when we are talking about this.

I see this on a website dedicated to distribute English classics in .pdf format. Those books are still on sale, from Barnes&Noble, Amazon, and god knows who else. Those who prefer to have those books as physical copy, can buy them there, and for the rest it's free.

What matters is that people can afford to read them, and those who can't have a way, to legally do this, like with Aozora.

Quote:Now an examination to extend the term of protection to 70 years after author's death has started upon the request from some interest groups and the US government.

Why am I not surprised? In the US they extended it to life+70 because Disney didn't want to let Mickey Mouse fall into public domain...One of the good things about Japan is that they don't have the U.Ss absurdly long copyright term. I hope they don't change it.

If copyright terms are to be increased, there are really three possible ways to go about it:

1) Increase the copyright term for new works.

2) The above, and also extend active copyrights. This is the usual way to do it, and many countries have done so at one point. Besides the video in question, the information I've seen suggests Japan plans to do it this way.

3) The above, and also revive expired copyrights. This is massively destructive. So far I've not found reference to any country having done it. I'd be interested if any of you know of a case where it's been done. The English subs on the video imply that Japan is considering this.

Please can someone with good Japanese listen to those 40 seconds of video and explain what is being said? It could just be a matter of clumsy translation.

Options "1" and "2" are bad enough; but the most serious question is whether "3" is on the table or not.

"Article 39 of the constitution of Japan prohibits the retroactive application of laws" - I don't know if this applies here? It just seems strange to me to activate the copyrights again for books that already lost them. People started to do things with that uncopyrighted material and now they would have to reverse all their actions?

Most countries have a rule like that, and it only means that people can't be punished for doing things that were legal at the time. If the law changes, people are expected to stop doing the thing that has become illegal.

You are right that it's strange; I think it's unlikely and there has been a misunderstanding somewhere. But I would expect Aozora Bunko to know what they are talking about here, so I am taking the idea seriously until it can be proven untrue.

It's quite possible that the original Japanese audio says "in the hypothetical case, if the term of protection were to be applied retrospectively, Aozora Bunko would lose about 3000/6000 works from its list (and this illustrates why increasing the copyright term is a bad thing)". So that's why I was asking a more advanced student to listen to it.

bladethecoder Wrote:It's quite possible that the original Japanese audio says "in the hypothetical case, if the term of protection were to be applied retrospectively, Aozora Bunko would lose about 3000/6000 works from its list (and this illustrates why increasing the copyright term is a bad thing)". So that's why I was asking a more advanced student to listen to it.

The audio says 万が一 , ie "in the worst case". In any case, given the video is from 2007 it's hardly a reliable guide to what's politically likely now...

Wikipedia says that a Tokyo court has already ruled that the 2004 extension from 50 to 70 for films cannot be applied retrospectively to works that had already gone into the public domain, so I think it would be surprising if a future extension for books worked differently.

As promised i have downloaded all the files and websites, and re-uploaded them, for all of you. megaupload.com I have not changed anything, just checked that all the websites are there, and everything is working.

After the download has finished, just unpack the folder that's inside the archive, and you can browse the websites on your local computer. Or do, whatever you like to do with the content, that's all up to you. The unpacked size is about 899 MB. So make sure to have enough space on your HDDs. ;-)

Quote:The audio says 万が一 , ie "in the worst case". In any case, given the video is from 2007 it's hardly a reliable guide to what's politically likely now...

Thanks for the info. And I hadn't noticed how old the video was.

Quote:Wikipedia says that a Tokyo court has already ruled that the 2004 extension from 50 to 70 for films cannot be applied retrospectively to works that had already gone into the public domain, so I think it would be surprising if a future extension for books worked differently.

That is reassuring. (Though it does suggest that someone thought applying the extension retrospectively to PD works was a good idea. If it was unanimous "that's absurd", the court probably wouldn't have needed to rule on it.)


Since the copyright extension has been discussed for some years, it may not happen this year, or next year, but the US government will keep applying pressure until it gets what it wants...