What puzzles me is that as far as I can remember, this verdict was actually given a year ago. Did Variety perhaps have a publishing error here, and a year ago when Mark Schilling typed his article, he mistakenly dated it for publication on 1st August 2009, when he actually meant 1st August 2008?

Whatever the reason for the sudden resurfacing of the court case, I am also somewhat uncertain why Variety’s explanation of the legal situation (“The copyright law changed in 1971, extending the term to 38 years after the creator’s death”) is different from the one that I gave a year ago (“Cosmo had earlier contested Toho’s copyright claim pointing out that based on a 1971 law change, Japanese copyright protects works only for 50 years after the release of the movie. The courts’ final decision, however, seems to be that copyright for movies made under the pre-1971 copyright law is calculated based on the old law, which extends copyright to 38 years after the creator’s death.”). Unfortunately, my source (Mainichi Daily News) seems to have removed their last year’s coverage of the news, so I cannot double check my sources.

When handing down the ruling, the preceding judge Nobuyoshi Tanaka is quoted as stressing that “the copyright over films is protected for 38 years from the year after the death of the director”.

Cosmo had earlier contested Toho’s copyright claim pointing out that based on a 1971 law change, Japanese copyright protects works only for 50 years after the release of the movie. The courts’ final decision, however, seems to be that copyright for movies made under the pre-1971 copyright law is calculated based on the old law, which extends copyright to 38 years after the creator’s death. Consequently, works Kurosawa directed before 1971 (all the way up to Dodesukaden) will be under Japanese copyright until 2036.

This would consequently appear to mean that the first Kurosawa film to come into public domain is Dersu Uzala, whose Japanese copyright should lapse in 2025, although I am not entirely sure how this works in this particular case since the film itself is Russian.

Moreover, would this also mean that all of Ozu and Mizoguchi is actually in public domain in Japan?

Source: Mainichi Daily News

Earlier this year, Toho hit Cosmo with a similar lawsuit for selling budget versions of Kurosawa’s movies (see here). This follows the Tokyo District Court’s decision that favoured Toho in a lawsuit determined to establish whether the company still holds copyrights to its classic films (see here).

Source: Variety

Cosmo had contested Toho’s copyright claim pointing out that based on the 1971 law change, Japanese copyright protects works for 50 years after release, therefore making every Kurosawa film made more than half a century ago out of copyright. The court’s decision, however, was that copyright for movies made under the old pre-1971 copyright law is calculated based on the old law, which extends copyright to 38 years after the creator’s death.

Based on Cosmo’s manufacturing an estimated 160,000 DVDs, Toho is now seeking $1.2 million (120 million yen) in damages.

By doing so, the Court has effectively named Kurosawa himself as the original copyright holder for his films, therefore meaning that all copyrights lapse only 38 years after his death.

Daily Yomimuri and Variety both have more details about the decision, as well as its effects on companies producing inexpensive DVDs of film classics.

The dispute has risen from Japan’s copyright laws, which were changed in 1971. According to Variety, prior to the change the copyright law protected movies for 38 years after their creator’s death (a somewhat complicated concept in the film industry, I feel), while the law decided on in 1971 revised this to protect movie copyrights for 50 years after their release.

Toho claims that as the early movies were released before 1971, the old copyright rules should still apply to them. The company estimates their losses at $128,205.

We will continue to keep an eye on the developments.

Thanks to a forum post by deconstruct (the forum is turning into a Frankenstein’s monster for me — soon I’ll be rendered useless!) we now know that one firm trying to profit from Japan’s copyright laws by releasing early Kurosawa on DVD has now been sued by Toho, who accuse them of violating copyright laws.

Details are still scarce, as the only new report we currently have about the matter is this MSN-Mainichi article. We will be keeping our eyes open, of course.