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August 30, 2005
JASRAC
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors,
Composers and Publishers
LAWSUIT AGAINST CATV OPERATORS
JASRAC WINS A REVERSAL AT IP HIGH COURT
THE FIVE RIGHTS GROUPS' CLAIM IS ALSO ENTIRELY JUSTIFIED
The Second Division of the Intellectual Property (IP) High Court presided by Tetsuhiro Nakano, made a ruling today (August 30, 2005) in two cases being disputed over the usage of copyrighted works on CATV. The ruling was in favour of the right owners whose claims were fully justified.
One of the cases is that JASRAC had filed a lawsuit against two CATV operators using JASRAC repertoire through their own programs or by a way of retransmission of programs through CS broadcasts without licenses from JASRAC, as well as against other one CATV operator who has not paid royalties under their licensing contract with JASRAC, demanding suspension of using JASRAC repertoires and damages due to such illegal usages. The other case is that the five right owners organization group (refer to * below) related to the rights in broadcast programs including JASRAC, WGJ (a society for scenario writers) and GEIDANKYO (a society for performers), as plaintiffs, had filed a lawsuit for payments of royalties,etc. based on the contract concluded between this group and the three aforesaid CATV operators concerning simultaneously retransmissions of terrestrial broadcast and Broadcast Satellite by CATV (called “5 groups contract”).
Tokyo District Court gave a decision on May 21, 2004 justifying the allegation from the CATV operators stating "there is no need to obtain licenses for retransmission of programs through CS broadcasts from JASRAC separately from the 5 groups contract" and "the clauses concerning GEIDANKYO in the 5 groups contract is invalid due to an error". The right owners including JASRAC have appealed to the Intellectual Property High Court.
The Intellectual Property (IP) High Court's today's ruling cancelled the decision of the first trial, and fully recognized the right owners' claim including JASRAC; stating that “the defenders have to obtain licenses from JASRAC for usage of musical works in their own programs, retransmission of programs through CS broadcasts, etc. separately from the 5 groups contract”, “the clauses concerning GEIDANKYO in the 5 groups contract is flawless and effective”. Thus, their claims were justified.
This ruling can be highly evaluated because the court recognized the legitimacy of the rules applicable to clearance of the rights, which were built over many years between JASRAC/each rights group and Japan Cable Telecommunications Association representing CATV industry, program providers, broadcasting stations who are entrusted with broadcasting programs produced by other broadcasters and other related media, as well as the legitimacy for JASRAC to calculate damages under its tariffs submitted to the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Your continued understanding and cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated.
* Five rights groups:
JASRAC
Writers Guild of Japan (WGJ)
The Japan Writer's association
Association of Scenario Writers Japan
Japan Council of Performers' Organization (GEIDANKYO)
Please contact the following, if you have inquiries:
Hayashi (Mr.), Kato (Mr.) or Fujii (Mr.)
Tel:03-3481-2164
Public Relations Department
JASRAC
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