European Breakfast - October 2 | 59 comments (59 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: European Breakfast - October 2 (4.00 / 3)

Japan Times: Novelists, others want copyright protection extended

A group of 16 organizations of writers, artists, musicians, cartoonists and publishers has issued a statement asking the Cultural Affairs Agency to extend copyright protection from 50 years after their deaths to 70 years -- just as in Europe and North America.
<snip>
"Unless the protection is extended to 70 years as quickly as possible, criticism from overseas will mount," said Hiromi Kawakami, a senior official at the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers.
"The problem will become global when the copyright protection for music of John Lennon and Elvis Presley expires," Kawakami said.
This spring, Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, and Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, sent letters to then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, asking him to extend copyright protection.
Novelist Masahiro Mita, vice president of the Japan Writers Association, said behind the request is an increase in life expectancy and the idea that families depend on the money they get from copyrights even after the artists have died.
"Especially in Japan, there are many 'I' novels, and authors have made subject matter of their family's private business," he said, indicating it is natural for relatives to receive royalties for a long time.
<snip>
Hideaki Shirata, an assistant professor at Hosei University, opposes the extension of copyright protection.
"Culture should be a public property which can be enjoyed freely by all people. A cultural life is the one in which many people can get in touch with works and can easily take part in creation," he said.
"The extension of copyright protection will narrow that down."

This is extremely disheartening. More people need to read Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture.

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

by marco on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 02:59:08 AM EST
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Re: European Breakfast - October 2 (none / 1)

"Unless the protection is extended to 70 years as quickly as possible, criticism from overseas will mount," said Hiromi Kawakami, a senior official at the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers.

What? Foreigners are criticising Japan for not having long enough copyright restrictions?

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 03:32:17 AM EST
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There is a term in Japanese -- gaiatsu -- which means "pressure from outside", which is used to refer to the pressure that foreign countries, particularly the U.S., put on Japan to change its policies.

It is a paradoxical term, because on the one hand it seems to have a pejorative connotation, but on the other, Japanese themselves often say that they are incapable of significant change unless someone from the outside pushes them to it. My take is that politically it is a convenient way to rationalize unpopular or uncomfortable policies with the people, when in fact vested interests often (though not always) have their own agendas for advancing these policies. "What can we do? The Americans/Europeans tell us we need to do it. We don't want to be the odd country out/behind the times/backwards, do we?" (Another characteristic trait of the Japanese is that they feel very uncomfortable being untrendy or sticking out from the rest.)

In any case, I think this Mr. Kawakami is exploiting Japanese susceptibility to gaiatsu/foreign pressure in all likelihood to further his own agenda and that of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers to extend their legal right to make money by renting out the use of cultural property that has been created by others without any obligation to add creative or cultural value themselves.

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

by marco on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 08:18:24 AM EST
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Hmmm... Interesting.

Doing asian languages from transliteration is risky business, especially when you don't know the language, but...

Is the gai in gaiatsu the same root as in gaijin?
atsu means pressure? Is that (厚)? If so, this is interesting to me: when you're playing go, it is a good thing to develop atsumi (厚味), which is a quality of a local position which radiates influence and can be used to attack nearby isolated enemy stones.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 08:25:41 AM EST
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Whoa: how are you writing these Japanese characters, by typing them in or by copy-and-pasting?

1. Is the gai in gaiatsu the same root as in gaijin?

Exactly.

2. atsu means pressure? Is that (厚)? If so, this is interesting to me: when you're playing go, it is a good thing to develop atsumi (厚味), which is a quality of a local position which radiates influence and can be used to attack nearby isolated enemy stones.

I am not that familiar with go, nor the term 厚味, which actually doesn't even come up on one popular translation site I use --

http://www.alc.co.jp/

although it does come up on this other site:

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C

(This indicates to me that the term may be somewhat archaic, but I'm not sure.)

You may know that Japanese has TONS of homophones, which makes it very easy for confusion to arise -- and to pun -- in Japanese.

For example, on this page --

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1B

-- try typing in "atsu" in the text box and hit "Select Kanji", and you'll see eighteen different characters come up... although for some reason 厚 is not coming up... f(^_^;)

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

by marco on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 09:38:30 AM EST
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By copying and pasting. Click the link to "atsumi" in my previous comment.

I know Japanese has lots of homophones, that's why I said it was risky to do this exercise from a transliteration.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 09:44:45 AM EST
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Re: European Breakfast - October 2 (none / 0)

The Monash site gives (外圧) for gaiatsu, so that's just a homophone.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 09:48:32 AM EST
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Re: European Breakfast - October 2 (none / 0)

Right, sorry, forgot to answer your original question.

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

by marco on Mon Oct 2nd, 2006 at 10:37:12 AM EST
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European Breakfast - October 2 | 59 comments (59 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)