The Japanese national Diet enacted revisions to the Copyright Act (chosakuken-hoh) in June 5, 2020 (issue: June 12, 2020). The actual changes have begun to go into effect on the 1st of the present October, and further changes to enforcement will commence in March 1, 2021.
The biggest change to the Act for October 2020 is the expansion of criminal punishments to websites and other applications that gather and present links to pirated versions of copyrighted materials on the Internet. Administrators of “reach sites,” or “reach apps” under the revised Articles 113, 119, and 120, that “particularly guide the public to copyright-infringing documents, etc.” or “primarily are used for the public’s use of copyright-infringing documents, etc.” can now be punished if an interested party complains with criminal penalties of up to five years of imprisonment. In addition, those who provide links to infringing materials on reach site or apps are to be considered infringers of the Copyright Act and subject to civil law measures and criminal penalties up to three years’ imprisonment.
This change had been proposed earlier but was pushed back from last year due to outcry over fears that legitimate use of copyrighted materials would suffer. Now, the government assures readers that its policies are accepted by interested organizations. Other minor changes to the law are in effect from October, such as enablement of licensees of copyrighted materials to continue using them under license even if the copyright holder assigns rights to another party.
From January 1, 2021 [correction: not March 1], further penalties and restrictions on users (e.g. downloaders) of pirated materials such as are covered under the October revisions are to be issued, with various ameliorating exceptions. Look for another article on that closer to the date the revisions go into effect.
As both paper book publishers and Internet-savvy young people struggle for their interests, the government of Japan tries to make laws fitting with the times. How good of a balance it will be striking with the 2020 revisions remains to be seen.
* The information provided on this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice.
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Taro Yaguchi
Sources
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan. “令和2年通常国会 著作権法改正について [The Reiwa year 2 regular Diet session’s revision to the Copyright Act].” Accessed October 22, 2020.
Header Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
