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PD Classic’s DVDed public domain movies

According to this FujiSankei Business article (found via 陸這記), the Japanese company PD Classic (ピーディー・クラシック) will start selling DVDs of public domain movies for 380 Yen a piece. That is, movies that were produced before January 1st 1954; movies made after that date enjoy (?) a 70 year protection term, which means that no movies will enter the public domain in Japan in the following 20 years.

All in all, this is a welcome evolution (works are digitized and thus preserved), although there are some downsides:

• To cover the costs of creating these DVDs, PD Classic does not only charge 380 Yen per DVD (nothing against that), but it also adds commercials before the movie.
• Worse than that, though, is the fact that DVDs are copy protected media. Although circumvention is easy (and the tools for it widely available), it is legally not allowed. Circumventing the DVD’s copy protection mechanism in order to make a copy of the public domain video you bought is thus not allowed.

Other than that, a welcome development.