Japan Copyright Law
(concerning with computer programs, telecommunication and database)
- temporary version -
translated by Takato NATSUI
Cautions
These are translated by Takato NATSUI for private or educational purposes, and not official nor authorized.
Correctness of these translations are not guarantied.
Link to another translation of Japan Copyright Law (Full Text) is here.
Article 1. (Purpose)
The purposes of this Law are to provide the rights of authors and the rights neighboring thereon concerning with works, performances, phonograms, broadcasts and wire diffusions, to secure the protection of these rights of authors, having regard to a fair exploitation of these cultural products, and thereby to contribute to the development of human culture.
Article 2. (Definitions)
1. For the purpose of this Law, the following terms shall have the meaning as set forth in followings.
(1) 'work' means a production in which thoughts or sentiments are expressed in a creative way and which falls within the literary, scientific, artistic or musical domain;
(2) 'author' means a person who creates a work;
(3) 'performance' means acting on stage, dancing, musical playing, singing, delivering, declaiming or performing in other ways of a work (includes similar acts which are not the performance of a work but have a nature of public entertainment);
(4) 'performers' means actor, dancer, musician, singer, conductor and director of a performance, and other person who produce a performance;
(5) 'phonograms' means fixation of sounds on a phonographic disc, recording-tape and other material form, except for those intended for use exclusively with visual images;
(6) 'producers of phonograms' means any person who fixes the sounds on a phonogram in the first place;
(7) 'commercial phonograms' means copies of phonograms made for commercial purposes;
(7-2) 'public transmission' means the transmission through radio communication or wire-telecommunication intended to be received by the public directly (excluding the transmission (except for any transmission of program works) by wire-telecommunication which one part of facility and the other part of facility of such wire-telecommunication are located on the same premises(if the premises are possessed by two or more persons, both parts of premises are located within the area therein possessed by one same person));
(8) 'broadcasting' means the public transmission through radio communication intended for simultaneous reception of the same contents by the public;
(9) 'broadcasting organizations' means those who engage in the broadcasting transaction;
(9-2) 'wire diffusion' means the public transmission of wire-telecommunication intended for simultaneous reception by the public of the transmission having the same contents;
(9-3) 'wire diffusion organizations' means those who engage in wire diffusion service;
(9-4) 'automatic public transmission' means the public transmission performed automatically in response to a request from the public, except for 'broadcasting' and 'wire-diffusion';
(9-5) 'making transmittable' means the putting in such a state that the automatic public transmission can be performed by either of the following acts:
(a) to store information on public transmission storage media in an automatic public transmission facility connected with public telecommunication, to add any storage media on which any information had stored to automatic public transmission facility for public transmission storage media, to alter any storage media on which any information had stored to public transmission storage media for automatic public transmission facility, or to input information in such automatic public transmission facility.
In this paragraph 'public transmission storage media' means a device which has a function to transmit automatically any information that has been stored on automatic public transmission facility or to transmit automatically any storage media on which such information had stored, and 'automatic public transmission facility' means any part or parts of storage media which is provided or intend to be provided for automatic public transmission by connecting with public telecommunication;
(b) to connect automatic public transmission facility on which any information have been stored or inputted with public telecommunication;
(10) 'producer of cinematographic works' means any person who initiate and have responsibility for producing a cinematographic work;
(10-2) 'program' means an expression of combined computer instructions so as to get a certain result by functioning any computer or computers;
(10-3) 'database' means an aggregation of articles, numerical, diagrams or other information, and which is systematically constructed to retrieve such information by computer;
(11) 'derivative work' means a work created by translating, arranging music, alternating, dramatizing, cinematizing or adapting an pre-existing work;
(12) 'joint work' means a work created by two or more persons which can not be exploited separately by dividing each own contributions of such person or persons;
(13) 'sound recording' means a fixation of sound or sounds on any material, or the multiplication of such fixation;
(14) 'visual recording' means a fixation of a sequence of visual images on any material, or the multiplication of such fixation;
(15) 'reproduction' means any reproduction in a tangible form by printing, photograph, copy, sound recording, visual recording or other means, and includes each following acts;
(a) drama work or other similar works for drama
sound recording or visual recording of acting, broadcasting or wire diffusion of such works
(b) architectural work
construction of any architectural work according to its plan;
(16) (omitted)
(17) (omitted)
(18) (omitted)
(19) 'distribution' means to transfer or to lend any copy of work to public whether with or without compensation, and in the case of a cinematographic work or a work reproduced therein, it includes transfer or lending of such reproduction of cinematographic work for the purpose of being available such work to the public.
(20) 'this country' means the effective jurisdiction of this law;
2. In this law, 'artistic work' includes an artistic craftsmanship.
3. (omitted)
4. (omitted)
5. (omitted)
6. (omitted)
7. (omitted)
8. (omitted)
9. (omitted)
Article 10. (Classification of works)
1. 'Works' as used in this law shall be exampled in following.
(1) novels, dramas, articles, lectures and other literary works;
(2) musical works;
(3) choreographic works and pantomimes
(4) paintings, engravings, sculptures and other artistic works
(5) architectural works
(6) maps as well as plans, charts and models which have a academic nature or other figurative works
(7) cinematographic works
(8) photographic works
(9) program works
2. News of the day and miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of information shall not fall within a term "works" as set forth in paragraph 1.
3. The protection granted by this Law to works as set forth in paragraph 1.(9) shall not extend to any programming language, any rule or any algorithm used for producing such works. In this case, the following terms shall have the meaning hereby assigned to them respectively:
(1) 'programming language' means letters or other symbols and their logical-systems as a representation of a program;
(2) 'rule' means a special rule on how to use said programming language contained in a particular program;
(3) 'algorithm' means methods of combination of computer instructions contained in a program;
Article 11. (Derivative works)
The protection granted by this Law to derivative works shall not prejudice the rights of authors of pre-existing works.
Article 12. (Compilations)
1. Compilations (except for "databases"; the same shall apply hereinafter) which, by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents, constitute intellectual creations shall be protected as independent works.
2. The provision of the preceding paragraph shall not prejudice the rights of authors of works which form any part or parts of such compilations defined in that paragraph.
Article 12-2. (Database works)
1. Databases which, by reason of the selection or systematic construction of information contained therein, constitute intellectual creations shall be protected as independent works.
2. The provision of the preceding paragraph shall not prejudice the rights of authors of works which form part or parts of such databases defined in that paragraph.
Article 14. (Presumption of authorship)
A person, whose name or appellation (hereinafter referred to as "true name"), or whose generally known pen name, abbreviation or other substitute for his true name (hereinafter referred to as "pseudonym") is indicated in the customary manner as the name of the author on the original of his or her work, or on his or her offered or provided work to the public, shall be presumed to be the author of that work.
Article 15. (Authorship of a work made by an employee in the course of his duties)
1. The authorship of a work (except for a program work) which, on the initiative of a legal person or other employer (hereinafter in this Article referred to as "legal person, etc."), is made by his employee in the course of his or her duties and is made public under the name of such legal person, etc. as the author, shall be attributed to that legal person, etc., unless otherwise stipulated in a contract, work regulation or the like in force at the time of the making of the work.
2. The authorship of a program work which, on the initiative of a legal person, etc. is made by his employee in the course of his duties, shall be attributed to that legal person, etc., unless otherwise stipulated in a contract, work regulation or other rules at the time of the making of the work.
Subsection 1.
General rules
Article 17. (Rights of authors)
1. The author of any works shall enjoy the rights mentioned in paragraph 1. of the next Article, Article 19, paragraph 1. and Article 20, paragraph 1. (hereinafter referred to as "moral rights") as well as the rights mentioned in Articles 21 to 28 (hereinafter referred to as "copyright").
2.The enjoyment of moral rights and copyright shall not be subject to any kind of formalities.
Subsection 5.
Limitations on copyright
Article 47-2 (Reproduction, etc. by the owner of a copy of a program work)
1. The owner of a copy of a program work may make copies or adaptations (including the making copies of a derivative work created by means of adaptation) of that work if and to the extent deemed necessary for the purpose of exploiting that work on a computer by himself or herself, excluding such case that the provision of Article 113, paragraph 2. should to be applied to the use of such copies in connection with such exploitation.
2. If the owner of copies as set forth in previous paragraph has ceased to have the ownership of any of such copies (including copies made in accordance with the provision of that paragraph) for reasons other than its destruction, he or she may not thereafter preserve other copies in the absence of any declaration of the intention of the copyright owner to the contrary.
Article 76 (Registration of the date of creation)
1. The author of a program work may register the date of creation of his or her work, within six months after the day of the creation of that work.
2. Program works as to which the date of creation is registered in accordance with the preceding paragraph shall be presumed to have been created on the date registered.
Article 112. (Right of demanding cessation)
1. The author of any works or the owner of moral rights, copyright, right of publication, or neighboring rights, may bring action against those who infringe or are likely to infringe such rights, for cessation or prevention of such infringements.
2.In an action as set forth in previous paragraph, the authors or the owners of copyright, the owners of right of publication, or the owners of neighboring rights, may demand to take measures reasonably and necessary to effect such cessation or prevention of infringement, such as the abandonment of objects the making of which constituted an infringement, objects made by an infringement or implements and tools used solely for an infringement.
Article 113. (Acts considered to be infringements)
1. The following acts shall be considered to constitute infringements on moral rights, copyright, right of publication or neighboring rights:
(1) the importation into this country, for distribution, of objects made by an act which would constitute an infringement on moral rights, copyright, right of publication or neighboring rights if they were made in this country at the time of such importation;
(2) the distribution or the possession for distribution of objects made by an act infringing moral rights, copyright, right of publication or neighboring rights (including those imported as mentioned in the preceding item) by a person who is aware of such infringement.
2. An act of using copies made by an act infringing copyright in a program work (including copies made by the owner of such copies in accordance with the provision of Article 47-2, paragraph 1, copies of a imported program work as set forth in the previous paragraph 1.(1) and copies made by the owner of such imported copies in accordance with the provision of Article 47-2, paragraph 1.) on a computer in the conduct of transaction, shall be considered to constitute an infringement on that copyright, so long as a person using such copies is aware of such infringement at the time when he has acquired an authority to use these copies.
3. An act of exploitation of a work prejudicial to the honor or reputation of the author shall be considered to constitute an infringement on his moral rights.
Chapter 8.
Penalties
Article 119.
The following shall be imprisoned at hard labor not more than 3 years or be fined not more than 3,000,000yen:
(1) any person who intentionally and knowingly, unlawfully, infringes moral rights, copyright, right of publication or neighboring rights (excluding those who reproduce by themselves works or performances, etc. for the purpose of private use as mentioned in Article 30, paragraph 1 (including the case where its application mutatis mutandis is provided for under the provision of Article 102, paragraph 1));
(2) any person who, intentionally and knowingly, unlawfully, for profit-making purposes, causes others to use automatic reproducing machines as set forth in Article 30, paragraph 1, for such reproduction of works or performances, etc. which constitutes an infringement on copyright, right of publication or neighboring rights.
Article 120.
Any person who intentionally and knowingly, unlawfully, violates the provision of Article 60 shall be fined not more than 3,000,000yen.
Reference
Japan Civil Code
Article 709. (Tort : elements and effects)
Any person who knowingly or by misconduct, unlawfully, injure any right of others shall ought to compensate for reasonable damages or costs to such injured person.
Copyright (C) 1998 Takato NATSUI, All rights reserved.
Last Modified : Mar/20/1998