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August 6, 2008
JASRAC
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors,
Composers and Publishers
JASRAC DEMANDS SUSPENSION OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND PAYMENT FOR DAMAGES AGAINST VIDEO-POSTING (SHARING) WEBSITE OPERATOR WHO LEAVES COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT UNTOUCHED
- Suit filed against operator refusing request for deletion of copyright and other rights-infringing videos -
JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers / President: Mamoru Kato) has filed a suit today against Pandora TV*(its head office in Tokyo), which operates video-posting (sharing) website "TV Break" (http://www.tvbreak.jp), to the Tokyo District Court. With copyright infringement as the reason, JASRAC is demanding prohibition of use of musical works under its administration (hereafter referred to as "JASRAC repertoire") on the TV Break website and payment for damages worth approximately 128 million Japanese Yen, covering the period during which the works were used unlicensed.
Since June 2007, JASRAC has requested Pandora TV to take specific measures to prevent posting of copyright-infringing videos containing JASRAC repertoire and to suspend distribution of those videos. However, Pandora TV has refused JASRAC's request, claiming that they will not bear responsibility for copyright infringement on the website in question, and is continuing their business without taking any measures. As of today, the situation is that a large number of JASRAC repertoire is illegally uploaded on to and is publicly transmitted from the website in question without any license.
Video-posting (sharing) websites have been launched in Japan by various operators since the beginning of 2006. Many of the video-posting (sharing) website operators other than Pandora TV have taken preventive measures for copyright infringement such as deleting copyright-infringing videos voluntarily with the aim to establish a legitimate business model or starting to distribute videos legitimately by obtaining licenses from right-owners, and thus, they are in the midst of striving to establish a good relationship with right-owners. However, Pandora TV has taken none of these measures and is continuing irresponsible operations, intentionally leaving untouched and accepting copyright infringement. As JASRAC cannot leave this large quantity of copyright-infringing acts caused by the operation of this website, this suit demanding suspension of copyright-infringing acts and payment for damages has been filed today.
Upon filing the suit, JASRAC has investigated copyright-infringing videos on the TV Break website in detail. Results have shown that as of April 2008, at least 20,613 video files containing JASRAC repertoire can be confirmed, and that a total of 3,812,198 views can be counted just for these files. By this series of infringing acts, JASRAC is suffering damages worth over 128 million Japanese Yen (based on royalty calculation per work and per usage according to the JASRAC tariffs), and if infringement were to continue in the future, damages worth 9.44 million Japanese Yen would arise every month.
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This Pandora TV* has nothing to do with the operating company of the Korean website, “PANDORA. TV.” |
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