chosaq

Short update

This is the “more soon”-post announced earlier. A series of quicklinks to current events.

• Recently, a lot of coverage about the planned ban on imports of Japanese CDs (see also my entry of 30-12-2003):
  • Asahi 16-02: Spinning Sales: Cheap CDs face import ban
  • The Japan Times 17-02: Japan CDs made abroad face five-year import ban: agency
  • Daily Yomiuri 18-02: Ban planned on imports of Japanese CDs
• For those who want to know more about this import ban (or, just in case you’re an IP peptalk lover): the 文化審議会著作権分科会報告書 is through its draft phase and available online.
• According to an article in the Daily Yomiuri of 14-02 (link to copy over at the boycott-riaa.com website), the Association of Japanese Symphony Orchestras has refused to pay musical royalties to the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) after the copyright protection body in October raised fees for music performed during concerts. The article reports: The intentional failure by a musical organization to pay musical copyright fees set by JASRAC is rare and is likely to spark a debate on the use of musical copyrights. Let’s hope the latter is true…