Reproduction for Private Use in Digital Network Age-Searching for a Balance between Rights Holders and Users from the Perspective of Section 30 of Copyright Act of Japan
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Kishida, Hideaki
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is, mainly though the problem of Japanese Copyright Law article 30 which provides the rule of reproduction for private use as a exception to copy right, to investigate how the users’ freedom of reproduction has been limited, and how the freedom has been secured under the relationship between law, technology, markets and norms after the late 20th century when the environment in which copyrightable works are created and distributed dramatically changed, and then to draw the ideal future of reproduction for private use.
The rule of reproduction for private use ensures the freedom of users, but at the same time limits the right of rights holders. Thus, from the beginning, there is a certain assumption for operating the rule. It is that the user’s act of copying users shouldn’t reduce the interests of rights holders. In recent years, because of the spread of the internet, the overall amount of individual acts of copying of each user has expanded significantly, and those copied works are now spreading all over the world. Therefore, the rights holders, while setting many exceptions in the rule of reproduction for private use through legislation and using various kinds of technologies that can limit users’ copying act, have been trying to secure their rights and interest. As a result, even reasonable acts of copying of users who don’t infringe on any interests for rights holders are strictly limited. It generates unnecessary conflict between users and rights holders.
The purpose of the copyright law is supposed to be “to protect the rights and interests of authors with respect to their works, balancing different interests for the common good of society, and promoting the development of national culture(Article 1 of the Taiwan’s Copyright Law)” and “to protect the rights of authors, etc…while giving due regard to the fair exploitation of these cultural products, and by doing so, to contribute to the development of culture(Article1 of the Japanese Copyright Law)”. But "development of culture" isn’t the thing which is guaranteed by the framework stetted by copyright law in advance. Precisely, in recent years copyright law has strengthened the nature of business law. In the legislative process, a group of rights holders has more opportunity than users to influence policy makers to reflect their opinions. Therefore copyright law is not necessarily designed totally fairly. For "development of culture", speaking ideally, users and rights holders set rules and standards on how to use works by themselves and respect each other to build a complementary relationship such as "supporters of culture - creators of culture". Copyright law should play the role of adjusting the problems which can not be resolved within this framework. And at that time, it is important for justice to interpret the law fairly.
This paper is, through those chapters below analysis of theories and international treaties on the rule of reproduction for private use(Chapter II), analysis of the formation and the latest trends on Article 30 of the Japanese Copyright Law(Chapter III), analysis of DRM (Digital Rights Management) ’s development process and the prospects(Chapter IV), and analysis of the relationship between article 65 of Taiwan''s Copyright Law which provides a general criterion for judgment of fair use and article 51 which provides an individual rule of reproduction for private use (Chapter V) supports the above conclusions.
Subjects
reproduction for private use
fair use
TPM
private copying levy
digital network age
three step test
DRM
Japanese Copyright Law article 30
Taiwanese Copyright Law article51 and article65
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-99-R95a21102-1.pdf
Size
23.32 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):7231df82e2d45f827322bdd141e0dcf6