Mainichi apologizes for WaiWai column’s copyright violations
Mainichi has issued yet another apology for its WaiWai column, this time expressing regret that some of the WaiWai articles violated the copyrights of other publishers:
In the column, articles were used without the consent of their publishers — including publishing and newspaper companies. Our follow-up investigation has found that we used and translated articles published by 32 publishing and newspaper companies without their permission.
We allowed another publisher to run some of these WaiWai articles in publications it printed, and received fees for the reprint. We are now in the process of repaying these reprint fees.
We are continuing to apologize to the publishers for violating their copyrights.
Mainichi has pledged to return the money it charged for republication of WaiWai articles, and it plans to “educate management and employees” about copyright issues.
Forgive me if I am wrong, but my understanding was that the WaiWai columns were embellished summaries of news reported by weekly tabloid magazines, not straight translations. If writing summaries and explanations of stories from a foreign language news publications is not acceptable, are news agencies like Reuters and Bloomberg paying Mainichi’s publishers money every time they mention news originally reported by Mainichi? And what about the Japan Times’ Tokyo Confidential column?
[hat tip to Fusou Note]
| Related Posts: |
|
Company fined 10.53 million yen for selling “copyrighted” Charlie Chaplin movies Japan Times places Tokyo Confidential column under “Editorial review” Crackdown On File-Sharing In Japan |
Full RSS Feed
So now 2channel has to go after 32 newspapers, instead of just one?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I have read original Japanese articles concerning a bestiality restaurant in Roppongi and fishermen having their way with fishes, both of which appeared in an issue of Jitsuwa Knucles featuring urban legends. The corresponding WaiWai articles had short introductions that were original to WaiWai, but remaining portions were almost literal translations of original articles that were detached from the context of the original issue. They were hardly summaries.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
As Aki says, WaiWai columns were translations. Under the law, you’re ot allowed to reproduce or translate a story from another publication without their permission. Tokyo Confidential avoids trouble by offering summaries of stories from other publications. This is OK under the law since only small bits of the original content is translated.
I was never a fan of WaiWai and this latest apology is pretty shocking: They have been stealing content since the column began!
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Whoa,let me get something straight. These things have been going on since 1989 (well actually longer, since other newspaper columns dug into the magazines before then) and nobody’s raised the issue up to now??? Nothing like a little embarrassment over sex with swine and seafood to set off a sh*tstorm of outrage and recriminations.
I look forward to getting all my cherry-picked news about Japan from “Mr. Clean” (NHK) and its fellow travelers.
Rate this comment:
0 
0