March 30, 2012
JASRAC
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors,
Composers and Publishers (JASRAC)
Copyright infringement on a video posting (sharing) site
Supreme Court refuses petition for acceptance of final appeal
The First Petty Bench of the Supreme Court decided on March 29, 2012 to refuse the petition for acceptance of final appeal made by JUST ONLINE Co., Ltd. (company headquarters located in Tokyo), the operator of a video posting (sharing) website “TV BREAK.”
As a result, the following two decisions become final and binding: the decision by the Tokyo District Court on November 13, 2009 which ordered JUST ONLINE to halt the transmission of video files containing JASRAC repertoire and which ordered the company and its CEO, Yoshihide Imasaki, to pay compensation for damages on copyright infringement, and the decision by the Intellectual Property High Court on September 8, 2010 which upheld the November 13, 2009 decision and dismissed the appeal made by the company.
JUST ONLINE Co., Ltd. and Yoshihide Imasaki had filed a petition for acceptance of final appeal to the Supreme Court on September 22, 2010, disagreeing with the aforementioned decision by the Intellectual Property High Court and claiming that there are errors in the original decision as to who would be held responsible for copyright-infringing acts and the interpretation and application of the term “sender” as stated in the Internet Service Provider’s Liability Limitation Law.
This decision can be highly valued by the fact that the Supreme Court upheld the Intellectual Property High Court decision with regard to the use of copyrighted works on the “TV BREAK” video posting (sharing) website which clearly acknowledged and judged that the defendant company, who is the operator of the said website, is the entity considered responsible for the use of copyrighted works, and that the defendant company is equivalent to the “sender” in Article 2 (iv) of the Internet Service Provider’s Liability Limitation Law as the one recording or entering information in the server associated with this case. Furthermore, it has also upheld the decision which acknowledged the defendant’s obligation to pay approximately 100 million yen in compensation for damages, this including delay damages and damages corresponding to royalties, the latter of which was calculated at 12 yen per video view.
Video posting (sharing) website services in Japan were started by a number of operators around 2006. Many such websites currently in existence have licensing agreements with JASRAC for the usage of JASRAC repertoire, while the rest seek to operate their websites legitimately by taking preventive measures against copyright infringement – for example, by voluntarily removing infringing videos from their sites.
The decision by the Supreme Court is expected to strike a note of warning not only against operators of video posting (sharing) websites but also against operators of “user upload” type services who leave illegal music files and videos unattended.
JASRAC will continue to issue cautions and warnings against illegal use of copyrighted works on the Internet and will seek to raise copyright awareness through publicity activities to promote the legitimate use of music. |
