Company fined 10.53 million yen for selling “copyrighted” Charlie Chaplin movies
Japan’s Supreme Court has ordered a budget DVD company that sold copies of Charlie Chaplin movies produced in the 1940′s to pay 10.53 million yen to a Liechtenstein-based company that claims copyright ownership of the films:
Under the old Copyright Act, copyright was valid for 33 years when claimed under the name of a group such as a film company, or for 38 years following the death of the original author. In its defense, the DVD company had asserted that copyright on the Chaplin films had lapsed under the first provision.
While Chaplin — who died in 1977 — authored and directed all nine films in question, the copyrights for some were registered under the name of a film company. However, the First Petty Bench of the Supreme Court chose to base its definition of copyright on “the person who provided the creative force in producing the films in their entirety,” and recognized Chaplin as the author of the movies. Moreover, “in cases where works are presented in the real names of their authors, even if the work is temporarily released under the name of a (film company), the second copyright provision takes precedence,” meaning copyright on the films will remain valid until 2015.
In other copyright news, the Osaka High Court overturned a ruling that had convicted the man who created the Winny file-sharing software of “assisting violations of the Copyright Law.”
The appeal ruling sided with the defense, saying: “Anonymity is not something to be looked on as illegal, and it is not something that applies specifically to copyright violations. The technical value of the software is neutral.”
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