Japan may adopt so-called 'fair use' in secondary use of copyrighted work

Thursday 26th March, 05:23 AM JST

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TPOJ at 11:14 AM JST - 26th March

Isn't "fair use" the whole basis of the CD rental industry here? Or am I reading this wrong?
m0l0 at 01:47 PM JST - 26th March

rental shouldn't involve copying so its a different issue.
tyciol at 07:03 AM JST - 27th March

This sounds like a good idea here. Especially with how good promotion is via fans for entertainment industries.
TPOJ at 11:34 AM JST - 28th March

rental shouldn't involve copying so its a different issue.

Well, I guess I'm thinking of what actually happens instead of what is technically supposed to happen. My thought is that if they were concerned about secondary use in copyrighted work, they would have stopped the rental scheme years ago.

I mean, some rental places sell blank CDs and even have a color copy machine so you can duplicate the artwork.
ichibanshibori at 09:58 PM JST - 30th March

The main obstacle to the introduction of the concept of 'fair use' in Japan is JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers). JASRAC is a monopoly which controls the rights to nearly all domestic popular music in Japan and charges broadcasters 1.5% of their total operating profits for licensing fees to use any of the JASRAC controlled library. Unfortunately, as long as Japanese companies and consumers keep paying the exorbitant JASRAC fees without questioning about the legitimacy of the JASRAC racket the idea of 'Fair Use' will remain as foreign to the Japanese as eating foreign grown rice.