Reliable information on Japanese copyright law in English is also provided by the websites of Intellectual Property High Court,[7] "Transparency of Japanese Law Project",[8] European Patent Office,[9] and Copyright Research and Information Center (CRIC).
Japanese copyright law protects all works "in which thoughts or sentiments are expressed in a creative way, and which falls within the literary, scientific, artistic or musical domain."
Teachers at non-profit educational institutions are permitted to reproduce copyrighted works for the purpose of teaching, as long as such reproduction does not infringe on the interests of the author.
For example, a teacher may duplicate a television program or audio recording, but may not distribute copies of educational software without express permission.
Normally, copyrighted materials can also be reproduced to the extent necessary for reporting of current events (this extends to printed matter, film, and photographs).
Political speeches and government proceedings can be freely reproduced, except when the intent of the reproduction is to create an anthology of the author's works.
Reflecting the popularity of online auction websites like eBay, the use of an image of an in-copyright work, on the internet when advertising something for sale.
[13] This update was made in 2004 to be more consistent with some other nations, notably the United States and most of Europe, as the previous term was fifty years.
In 2006, following a lawsuit from Paramount Pictures, the Tokyo District Court said that the 2004 law cannot be applied retroactively, so that all cinematographic works published (or created, if unpublished) before 1953 are now public domain.
Works authored by, or transferred to, residents of countries which were Allied Powers in World War II, before the effectuation of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, are given some prolonged protection by an exemption law.
This extension compensates for the unprotected period in World War II, and varies with the country of the author or the copyright holder in the wartime.
According to this system, those who make digital sound or visual recordings for personal use should pay compensation to the copyright owners.
We have to teach them that you should not use other people's assets for free, by opening up a legal window for them to use" (The Japan Times Online, 18 August 2000).
We only should be aware that the current transformations in the legislation concerning intellectual property rights—in Japan and in other countries—is moving very fast, and do not seem to take into account all facets of the story, nor remember the very basic goal of copyright, which is "to contribute to the development of culture".
In November 2000, the "Copyright Management Business Law" (著作権等管理事業法 Chosakuken-tou kanri jigyou hou) was enacted.
In general, we can say that this law will facilitate the rise of copyright management businesses, and possibly create a further limitation to the reach of the public domain.
Not mentioned, however, is the possible negative side-effects concerning fair use (limitation on rights), or the reach of the public domain.
After the amendment, it was extended to all kinds of works, reaffirming at the same time, exactly as in the right of transfer of ownership, the importance of the notion of the author.
Although most of the comments received by the government were in opposition to the law, on December 18, the Agency of Cultural Affairs proposed to ban illegal downloading, because Makoto Kawase, the head of the agency's Copyrighted Work Circulation Promotion Department, said that despite the mass opposition, the change was inevitable.
[19] In 2017, the JASRAC also demanded copyright fees from private music schools as a loophole of an exception for non-profit educational use.
[21] The Japanese copyright law has been accused of being increasingly harsh and restrictive on consumers in recent years, with disproportionate penalties for downloading.
Following lobbying by the RIAJ in June 2009, an amendment made it illegal to download copyrighted material uploaded without the author's permission effective from 2010.
However, no criminal penalties were defined until October 2012, when starting from then, illegally downloading music and movies can be punished by a fine of 2 million yen and imprisonment of 2 years.
An emergency statement made by academics, lawyers, and experts and severe concern over an "Internet atrophy", causing the amendment to be shelved.
[24] These restrictive amendments have spawned outcry from internet blog Techdirt, which said that the increasingly restrictive penalties in the copyright law violate Article 37(1) of the Penal Code, which states that "An act unavoidably performed to avert a present danger to the life, body, liberty or property of oneself or any other person is not punishable only when the harm produced by such act does not exceed the harm to be averted".
The limitation of short excerpts and unintentional downloading has been unclear and the penalties for "leech sites" have been criticized as disproportionate for merely linking to copyrighted material.