Frankly, I’m kind of sick of it. Is it because non-copyrighted pieces of work are not sustainable for large publishing houses? Not to mention manga is too. It’s not much of a problem when it comes to individuals, but companies which probably lobby for “eternal” copyright (I know Disney does but that’s not Japanese).
In fact, is there anything from Japan that I don’t have to feel guilty about sharing with my friends and family (but mostly friends)? Or do I literally have to wait until my death for some anime to enter the public domain?
Literally everything is copyrighted in every country. Were you born yesterday?
Perhaps I was. I recently started noticing it more and more, and I know it’s stupid but the same thing happened with registered trademarks
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.” The laws automatically provide the following rights, without the need for formal declaration or registration.[1]
Since the 90s[2], Copyright in the USA and all trade partners they have leverage over[3], copyright has been automatically applied to all works without the need for registration. A creator can voluntarily put their work into the public domain, but this is an extra step they must do themselves. As a company, there’s little reason to actually do this and give up your ability to protect your works and brands. Especially as a publicly traded company, you may even be putting yourself at risk for lawsuits by not profit-seeking as much as you can.
Strictly speaking, this very comment is under various levels of copyright, albeit the ability to protect it is both dubious and very unlikely.[4]
“is there anything from Japan that I don’t have to feel guilty about sharing with my friends and family (but mostly friends)?”
If you’re concerned about observing copyright law, then practically the answer is no. Literally, the answer is that any cinematographic work before 1954 in Japan is in the public domain. The highest rated anime from that time period would be Manga Futatsu no Sekai (Two Cartoon Worlds) which scores a 5.38 out of 10 on anidb.
A court case in 2007 ruled that works released before and in 1970 are protected by copyright until 38 years after the creator’s death. Works beyond that are protected for 70 years after the author’s death, or 70 years if they’re not made under the name of a single author to the work.
TL;DR copyright is on almost anything you’d want to share from Japan until it’s 70 years old. We’ll see the Astro Boy anime hit the public domain in the year 2033.
1999 for Japan specifically ↩︎
This is a general statement. Please research particular locales for specific situations per country ↩︎
https://ipsolutionslaw.com/copyrights/photographers-and-artists-beware-social-media-post-forfeit-copyright/ ↩︎
@razrabotka uhhh…is this unexpected? Nearly all Western animation is copyrighted too. Steamboat willy isn’t even public domain.
Unexpected? Well, it seems that way from the way I commented. I just want to find one example where something isn’t willingly protected under copyright law in Japan (it’s easier to find such media in the West than the East)
Everything is protected under copyright by default.
Can you provide some examples of western productions that were put into the public domain (which needs to happen through an explicit act)?
If you have a disc copy of an anime, you are free to share the disc.
With a lot of foreign-from-your-country media it is hard to get an hold of that media without spending a lot via a 3rd-party.
If that media is available in your country, then you are free to share the official ways to consume that media.
Having an unofficial copy of a piece of media that isn’t even available in your country isn’t hurting the company behind it, as you are paying premium to a 3rd-party that already bought those copies of the media and now needs to pocket the extra percentage on it.
Copyright almost never applies to the consumer and is more meant to prevent other companies from reselling unofficial recreations or bundles, but of course that depends on laws of your state.
Copyright almost never applies to the consumer and is more meant to prevent other companies from reselling unofficial recreations or bundles, but of course that depends on laws of your state.
I think the issue is that people think they’re still consumers, because they’re not companies. Uploading an anime, heck uploading a clip from an anime to YouTube is already going above what being a consumer it. Not a company, certainly, but you’re already above consumer and people keep getting confused by it.
