The Debate over Revisions to the Copyright System

The Council for Cultural Affairs. There's been debate over 'a flexible system of rights.' Some are working towards making the system more beneficial for users. Laws need to be updated in order to take into account Internet usage. Starting from the discussion taking place within the Intellectual Property Division, the Council is working towards creating a more practical system.

I've advocated for copyright to be seen less as a system and more as a business. This is because revisions to the system commonly take years and yield relatively minuscule results. Rather than do that, it would be more viable and effective to facilitate increased production,distribution,and consumption of copyrighted works by real services and businesses.

However, the current debate was a meaningful one geared towards large-scale revisions. I'd like to show my respect for the governmental and committee members who've been hard at work on this problem from the outset,and I agree with the revisions currently being proposed. However, I'm very interested in what comes next.

Which is to say: the guidelines the government will formulate for the intellectual property plan.

"We are conducting a study on the strategy to be taken to plan the most appropriate application of the law regarding flexible limited rights provisions, from the perspective of increased foreseeability and including the formulation of guidelines regarding the actions to be subject to the law." (Intellectual Property Plan 2016)

As there are only generalities written into the law, the details of the copyright system have been left up to the courts to determine. Just as with Japan's ordinary administrative law, the government office writes explanatory commentaries, however in this case they are aiming to produce guidelines that make it easier to provide clarity in advance.

The work will be conducted after drafting the bill, but it would be good if these more detailed explanations and the thought underlying them were produced by gaining the participation of the council members and lawyers, judges and stakeholders, and working in cooperation. I think it's about time we expanded the frame we've been using up until this point.