Japan: Search engines in Japan

[Miyuki]

Japan Decides That Maybe It Should Make Search Engines Legal

from the not-a-bad-idea dept

There have been some questions lately about whether or not search engines today are actually legal. Some have expressed the opinion (as ridiculous as it may sound to some of us) that a search engine is effectively violating the copyright of every website it indexes. It seems dumb, but there are still some (such as a bunch of newspapers in Belgium) who feel otherwise. In the US, at least, Google has a pretty good fair use defense. However, it appears that under Japanese law, search engines technically are big time copyright infringers -- though, it doesn't seem like anyone has filed a lawsuit over this. Basically, as written, the law states that the search engine needs to first get permission from a copyright holder before indexing their site. Luckily, some in the Japanese government figured out that it's probably for the best if they amend the laws to allow search engines that can search without obtaining permission from every site. Nice to see some copyright laws changing in the proper direction (and doing so without ridiculous lawsuits first).

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070119/003655.shtml

[Miyuki]

Well so much for that idea.

Court rejects claims by NHK, broadcasters against TV Internet transmissions

The Intellectual Property High Court on Tuesday rejected claims by NHK and five other major broadcasters against a service enabling recorded Japanese television programs to be sent overseas through the Internet, overturning an earlier ruling.

Ruling in favor of Nihon Digital Co., the company that provides the service, the court dismissed a Tokyo District Court ruling that had ordered a halt to program recording and had awarded about 7.3 million yen in damages to the parties that filed the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was sparked by a service allowing domestic television programs recorded on a main unit to be sent overseas through the Internet to a receiving unit. The district court ruling said that the company's recording activities violated the reproduction rights of the broadcasters, but in the high court ruling Presiding Judge Nobuyoshi Tanaka said the company was merely providing an environment.

"All it is doing is providing an environment for legitimate private use, and it does not constitute reproduction," the judge said.

A legal representative for Nihon Digital praised the ruling, saying it followed the spirit of Japan's copyright law. The broadcasters commented that they would carefully examine the ruling and decide on a response.

(Mainichi Japan) January 28, 2009