3 ms·

How/why is it that their copyright law allows them to literally make a copy but not scan and send it?

by kayson 3y ago

tivert 3y ago
> How/why is it that their copyright law allows them to literally make a copy but not scan and send it? Total speculation: but maybe there's a narrow fair use exception that only applies to photocopies. Which makes a certain amount of sense: a photocopy suffers generation loss, but a digital scan can be infinitely duplicated perfectly.
- leoc 3y ago
  Certainly such compulsory-licensing schemes for photocopying of books in libraries are not uncommon: the ALCS hands out the money from the UK's, for instance https://www.alcs.co.uk/where-the-money-comes-from https://www.alcs.co.uk/where-the-money-comes-from . Japan's scheme still not allowing the national library to share digital scans would certainly fit the conventional wisdom about that country being slow to embrace digitisation, but really the digital-lending-rights situation is probably a bin-fire everywhere, just not in quite the same way everywhere. And in fact I think Japanese law might be unusually generous (IANAL!) if it lets the national library copy an arbitrary number of magazine pages for anyone anywhere in the world.
- sirn 3y ago
  Article 31 of Japan's copyright law (著作権法第31条) gives National Diet Library (and a few approved public libraries) a special exception which allows them to make a photocopy of a copyrighted material as long as it's "for researching purpose", "part of a work" (i.e., less than 50% of a book or an article), and "one copy per person".[1] IANAL, but I think it could be that a digital copy is no longer "one copy per person" as you can make unlimited copies from it, as well as sending it digitally is already making two copies between sender and receiver. [1]: https://www.cric.or.jp/english/clj/cl2.html https://www.cric.or.jp/english/clj/cl2.html (Article 31)^1 ^1: Though this translation is slightly outdated, there were some revisions to copyright law in 2021, but this part is mostly unaffected.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
killingtime74 3y ago
You're making an assumption that what the librarians is doing is lawful. It may or may not. Librarians are not lawyers. We also don't know if these librarians are breaking the law knowing or unknowingly. (AU lawyer, no idea about Japanese copyright law)
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- huepfebein 3y ago
  Libraries, backed by professional associations and legal departments, usually follow developments regarding copyright laws (at least on a national level) very closely und provide detailed guidelines for their employees on how to handle these kinds of requests. Your typical librarian is probably more knowledgeable about copyright regulations than the average citizen. Also, some librarians are also legal professionals (I'm friends with two such persons).
- fhars 3y ago
  I think it is a modarately safe bet that the people who designed the processes used by the official library of the Japanese parliament have a reasonable grasp of the applicable laws.
heywhatupboys 3y ago
Why does American copyright law generally allow a 30 second clip of an otherwise copyrighted video to be used? Laws are different
- j16sdiz 3y ago
  The US government have been trying to harmonize (read: pushing the US version to other country) the copyright law with treaties.
zinekeller 3y ago
Seems strange in the US but even in the UK (for example) some digital scans have a 25-year copyright protection added: > Typographical copyright > If scanning a copyright-expired work from a British publication, typographical copyright must be borne in mind. This subsists for 25 years from creation of the publication and covers the typographical arrangement of the publication. It does not exist in the United States. This is an important reminder that the US is one of the weirdest countries when it comes to copyright (despite the lobbying done by Disney, MPA and RIAA it's still one of the most liberal IP regimes in the world).
ezconnect 3y ago
It's a library national law thing to spread knowledge. The Chinese culture went one step further it does not allow you monopoly to an idea where copying is encourage to promote innovation and spread of knowledge.

How/why is it that their copyright law allows them to literally make a copy but not scan and send it?

by kayson 3y ago

How/why is it that their copyright law allows them to literally make a copy but not scan and send it?

> How/why is it that their copyright law allows them to literally make a copy but not scan and send it? Total speculation: but maybe there's a narrow fair use exception that only applies to photocopies. Which makes a certain amount of sense: a photocopy suffers generation loss, but a digital scan can be infinitely duplicated perfectly.

leoc 3y ago
Certainly such compulsory-licensing schemes for photocopying of books in libraries are not uncommon: the ALCS hands out the money from the UK's, for instance https://www.alcs.co.uk/where-the-money-comes-from https://www.alcs.co.uk/where-the-money-comes-from . Japan's scheme still not allowing the national library to share digital scans would certainly fit the conventional wisdom about that country being slow to embrace digitisation, but really the digital-lending-rights situation is probably a bin-fire everywhere, just not in quite the same way everywhere. And in fact I think Japanese law might be unusually generous (IANAL!) if it lets the national library copy an arbitrary number of magazine pages for anyone anywhere in the world.
sirn 3y ago
Article 31 of Japan's copyright law (著作権法第31条) gives National Diet Library (and a few approved public libraries) a special exception which allows them to make a photocopy of a copyrighted material as long as it's "for researching purpose", "part of a work" (i.e., less than 50% of a book or an article), and "one copy per person".[1] IANAL, but I think it could be that a digital copy is no longer "one copy per person" as you can make unlimited copies from it, as well as sending it digitally is already making two copies between sender and receiver. [1]: https://www.cric.or.jp/english/clj/cl2.html https://www.cric.or.jp/english/clj/cl2.html (Article 31)^1 ^1: Though this translation is slightly outdated, there were some revisions to copyright law in 2021, but this part is mostly unaffected.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

killingtime74 3y ago

You're making an assumption that what the librarians is doing is lawful. It may or may not. Librarians are not lawyers. We also don't know if these librarians are breaking the law knowing or unknowingly. (AU lawyer, no idea about Japanese copyright law)

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
huepfebein 3y ago
Libraries, backed by professional associations and legal departments, usually follow developments regarding copyright laws (at least on a national level) very closely und provide detailed guidelines for their employees on how to handle these kinds of requests. Your typical librarian is probably more knowledgeable about copyright regulations than the average citizen. Also, some librarians are also legal professionals (I'm friends with two such persons).
fhars 3y ago
I think it is a modarately safe bet that the people who designed the processes used by the official library of the Japanese parliament have a reasonable grasp of the applicable laws.

heywhatupboys 3y ago

Why does American copyright law generally allow a 30 second clip of an otherwise copyrighted video to be used? Laws are different

j16sdiz 3y ago
The US government have been trying to harmonize (read: pushing the US version to other country) the copyright law with treaties.

zinekeller 3y ago

Seems strange in the US but even in the UK (for example) some digital scans have a 25-year copyright protection added: > Typographical copyright > If scanning a copyright-expired work from a British publication, typographical copyright must be borne in mind. This subsists for 25 years from creation of the publication and covers the typographical arrangement of the publication. It does not exist in the United States. This is an important reminder that the US is one of the weirdest countries when it comes to copyright (despite the lobbying done by Disney, MPA and RIAA it's still one of the most liberal IP regimes in the world).

ezconnect 3y ago

It's a library national law thing to spread knowledge. The Chinese culture went one step further it does not allow you monopoly to an idea where copying is encourage to promote innovation and spread of knowledge.