Constantly Keeping Our Eyes on New Developments in Content Policy

■Constantly Keeping Our Eyes on New Developments in Content Policy

Government meetings on content and copyright continue to be held.

The Digital Copyright Task Force of the Intellectual Property Headquarters has issued an interim report, and in response, a copyright study group for the Digital transformation era at the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and a content subcommittee meeting about content at the Intellectual Property Headquarters were held.

At the time of the Diet deliberating on the revision of the Copyright Act for the integration of telecommunications and broadcasting, comes the next step in the discussion of digital strategy.

I made a report on the Intellectual Property Task Force. --

The government's internal coordination had not been settled, and the interim report brought things to an end for the time being. 

This was because there was difficulty coordinating over the options and specifics in relation to the handling of rights, such as extended centralized licensing and rights restrictions with compensation.

However, this was also a result of the fact that the committee members were allowed to discuss matters freely, making the discussions worthwhile.

Copyright administration has achieved significant results in the past few years.

Flexible rights restrictions and online education in 2018; anti-piracy measures in 2020; and broadcasting online streaming, which is currently being introduced.

I believe that the major issues for digitization have been largely dealt with. We should recognize that work.

This task force is now chatting about what is the next challenge.

The first half of the task force report is about the changing environment.

Digitization has drastically changed the environment for content distribution, consumption, and creation, and platforms dominate the market.

Furthermore, content is the source of data and becomes intermediate goods; and content is the center of economic value.

We recognized that policies that focus only on content will fail.

For the latter half of the measures, centralized handling of rights, such as extended centralized licensing, etc., were the most controversial, and so intra-governmental coordination was also difficult.

Other items were even more important.

UGC guidelines, rights databases, improvement of transactions for productions, and problem solving through methods other than law, such as an emphasis on soft law, are becoming more important as copyright policy.

Furthermore, what I felt through the discussion this time is that, in the midst of major environmental changes, seeking partial solutions within the framework of copyright law is no longer enough to reach the optimal solution.

The time has come to think again within the framework of larger media and information policies, that include IT policy and telecommunications and broadcasting policy, and both software and hardware.

(The above is the report.)

I would like to introduce the subcommittee's discussion on contents.

Mr. Hori of HoriPro expressed his sense of impending crisis that entertainment during COVID-19 is being treated as unnecessary and nonurgent, even though the situation is that Japan has lost out to South Korea.

Mr. Ota of TV Tokyo also expressed his sense of crisis that the handling of rights is complicated, and profits cannot be gotten amidst the diversification of media such as with streaming etc.

A great sense of urgency was also shared regarding piracy.

Although this style of downloading has declined due to the revision of the Copyright Act and campaigns, the damage has increased during the year of COVID-19.

The amount of reading that is done for free is on par with the former “Manga-Mura”, to be the worst in history.

Now they all come from Vietnam, and even if they are dealt with, it doesn't lead to them being shut down.

This was the report. 

In addition to the revision of the Copyright Act, the government is taking a firm hand in strengthening international cooperation and enforcement; considering an access warning system; and establishing a legal system for the disclosure of identification information of the sender, etc.

The private sector has also been putting effort into measures to address the situation, with the establishment of the incorporated association ABJ by the publishing industry.

Even so, the worsening of the situation is a serious matter.

This is where the discussion of blocking arose once again.

Committee member Hayashi, pointed out the importance of the fact that blocking has been adopted almost everywhere overseas, and that in Europe, in addition to the UK, Spain and Italy, Germany has also started a system.

Committee member Kawakami, also put right perceptions about whether the government is aware of the seriousness of the current situation, and whether it thinks piracy can be deterred by means other than blocking.

The government decision on blocking was made just two years ago. Since then, after heated debate, comprehensive measures have been established, and steady steps have been taken. However, there is now a new situation, given demand due to staying at home during COVID-19.

Blocking is to be "Examined whilst watching the effects of other measures and how much damage there is, etc.", so the possibility remains that it may be reconsidered.

Based on all of this, the 2021 IP plan was recently decided upon. It is now moving on to the next phase of policy implementation.

I will constantly keep my eyes on new developments in content policy.