Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers

The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (Japanese社 団 法人 日本 音 楽 著作 権 协会, Shadanhōjin Nihon Ongaku Chosakuken Kyōkai ), short JASRAC, is a non-profit organization for the protection of the rights of Japanese authors, musicians and publishers, comparable to the German GEMA. The JASRAC was founded in November 1939 after Japan was in 1899 joined the Berne Convention for the protection of copyright. Today it is the largest organization of its kind in Japan.

Information

  • CEO of JASRAC is Mamoru Kato.
  • The seat is located in Shibuya / Tokyo.
  • The JASRAC also has branches in all major cities of Japan.
  • The company has 503 employees and represents the time (April 2007), more than 13,000 clients.
  • Under the protection of JASRAC there are more than 7 million works.
  • Since 1982, the JASRAC Awards in Japan are awarded particularly successful national and international artists.

YouTube

In December 2006, the JASRAC caused an international stir when it requested the popular American video platform YouTube, on behalf of 24 major Japanese entertainment company to remove more than 30,000 copyrighted works by Japanese artists. They also called for stronger measures to prevent copyright infringement, including to provide the proposal to the platform with warnings in Japanese language.

In February 2007, there was in Tokyo for a first meeting of representatives from YouTube, JASRAC and the 24 companies lodged complaints. The proposed measures and their implementation were discussed. Were introduced Immediately thereafter, among other warnings in Japanese when uploading a video.

At a second meeting in August 2007, the changes made ​​were presented to the leaders of the JASRAC. It was also mentioned that an automated filtering system for copyrighted material is in development, which was required by the JASRAC. Was the basis that it constituted for rights holders is a great effort, manually appeal any videos affected complaint. Nevertheless, YouTube was asked to design the system against copyright violations more effectively and take an example from existing Japanese video portals.

Legal basis

The right of collecting societies has been significantly liberalized in 2000. Until then, obtain regulatory approval for the businesslike management of copyright other people was necessary. Under the new law now is only required to sign.

Sources

Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats Shibuya, Tokyo
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