※ Contents may be revised or added as appropriate.
- 2021/03/31
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「Large-scale archiving of past stage productions and the dawn of digital theater - Invitation to EPAD project」
Fukui Kensaku & Tajima Yuki（Kotto Dori Law Office for the Arts）
The " Emergency Performing Arts Archive + Digital Theater Support Project (EPAD)" is a project to collect, preserve and distribute past performing arts videos and materials, while supporting the performing arts industry in crisis.
Three website have been launched under the EPAD project. Each of the sites has an elaborate content, this column will serve as an brief introduction.
Full Text (Japanese) - 2021/02/26
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「How to See and Understand Contemporary Art-the Boundary between "Ideas"and "Expressions"」
Okamoto Kentaro（Kotto Dori Law Office for the Arts）
It is said that Picasso painted "Woman with Yellow Hair" by imaging Mattis's style and Mattis painted "The Dream" by thinking of Picasso's works. This is an episode showing the relationship between the two masters. From this background, both works are similar. Probably, however, the two masters would not have believed that one of the works infringed the copyright of the other, and few people would think that one infringes the copyright of the other by looking at both works.
In the field of contemporary art, there are works with similar themes or motifs. However, as compared to traditional paintings, sometimes it is difficult to judge copyright infringements. The other day, in the case of the "gold fish telephone box", the Osaka High Court found copyright infringement, different from the Nara District Court, its original court. This column considers the boundaries of "ideas" that are not protected under the copyright law and "expressions" that are protected.Full Text (Japanese) - 2021/01/28
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「Progress Report of the Task Force to Copyright Related Policies in the Digital Age - Focusing on UGC」
Idei Hajime（Kotto Dori Law Office for the Arts）
Since May 2020, I have been concurrently serving as Assistant Counselor at the Cabinet Office's Intellectual Property Strategy Promotion Office. Currently, this office has set up the "Task Force for Copyright Related Policies in the Digital Age" to study the status of the copyright and related policies in response to the actual conditions of the digital age. The Task Force (TF) deals with a wide range of topics, and in this column, I would like to report on "UGC"(User Generated Contents), which is one of the most important topics among the TF's discussion, and give my own thoughts on it.
Full Text (Japanese) - 2020/11/27
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「Is it alright? The Use of Architectural Images」
Okamoto Kentaro（Kotto Dori Law Office for the Arts）
Photography, movies, TV, manga/anime, games, VR/AR, goods, etc. Architecture is used in so many contents, partly because it is a part of the landscape. On the other hand, architectural works can be protected not only by copyright, but also by trademark and design rights.
The Byodo-in Temple in Kyoto had filed a lawsuit against a toy company who sell jigsaw puzzles of pictures of the Phoenix Hall, demanding that the company stop selling the jigsaw puzzles, but it seems that a settlement was reached last month (October 2020). In this column, I would like to discuss the use of architectural images in contents to avoid inadvertent infringement of rights.Full Text (Japanese) - 2020/11/27
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「Are Manga Spoiler Sites Illegal? -The Relationship between Manga Spoilers and Copyright Law on the Internet」
Tajima Yuki（Kotto Dori Law Office for the Arts）
The problem of "manga spoilers on the Internet" is now before us.The term "manga spoiler" can be used to describe many different types of spoilers. Is the act of manga spoiling on the Internet really illegal under copyright law?
In this column, I will review the basic knowledge of copyright law and examine each type of spoiler.Full Text (Japanese)
