JapanCopyright Act, Right of Reproduction, Right to Transmit to the Public, Right to Demand an Injunction and penalties
Copyright Act, Act No. 48 of 1970, Arts. 21, 23, 112 and 119
In force since .
A copyright: the exclusive rights rule binding public and private bodies.
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
As of .
What it requires
- Get the author's permission before you reproduce a work, meaning its physical replication through printing, photography, copying, the recording of sound or visuals, or in any other way: the author has the exclusive right to reproduce it (Art. 21; Art. 2(1)(xv)).
- Get the author's permission before you transmit a work to the public, which includes making it available for transmission where it is to be transmitted to the public via automatic public transmission (Art. 23(1)).
- Treat putting data on an automatic public transmission server connected to a public telecommunications network, or connecting to such a network a server that already holds the data, as making a work available for transmission (Art. 2(1)(ix)-5).
- Stop an infringement and avoid acts likely to infringe: the right holder may file a claim for the cessation or prevention of infringement, and may demand the destruction of objects that give rise to or are made through an infringement, machines or tools used solely for an infringement, and other measures necessary to stop or prevent it (Art. 112(1) and (2)).
- Do not make available or present to the public a computer program facilitating the exploitation of an infringing work, meaning one found to be deliberately leading the public to an infringing work when providing a transmitter identification code, or found to be used mainly for the exploitation of an infringing work by the public; a person that merely provided the opportunity to do so on a website that includes a considerable number of other websites or programs is excluded unless it has for a considerable time and without reasonable grounds failed to comply with the copyright owner's requests to delete the infringing transmitter identification codes (Art. 113(2)(ii); Art. 119(2)(v)).
- Do not aid another person's commission of a copyright offence: the Penal Code treats a person who aids the principal offender as an accessory, and applies its general provisions to crimes punished under other laws unless those laws provide otherwise (Penal Code Art. 62(1) and Art. 8).
- Check the limitations of copyrights in Articles 30 through 50 before relying on any use without the author's permission.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Infringing a copyright is punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to ten years, a fine of up to ten million yen, or both (Art. 119(1)). Making available or presenting to the public a computer program facilitating the exploitation of an infringing work is punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to five years, a fine of up to five million yen, or both (Art. 119(2)(v)). A corporation whose representative or employee commits an Article 119(1) offence in connection with its business is punishable by a fine of up to three hundred million yen, in addition to the offender (Art. 124(1)(i)). Prosecution for these offences requires an accusation by the injured party (Art. 123(1)). That requirement does not apply to an Article 119(1) offence committed by the acts Art. 123(2) lists, for financial gain or to damage the profit expected from a fee-based work (Art. 123(2)).
Penalty structure
The cap shown is the corporate fine under Art. 124(1)(i) for an offence under Art. 119(1). An individual faces imprisonment for up to ten years, a fine of up to ten million yen, or both under Art. 119(1), and imprisonment for up to five years, a fine of up to five million yen, or both under Art. 119(2).
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- JPY
- Fixed cap
- 300,000,000
What this law does
Article 21 of the Copyright Act gives the author of a work the exclusive right to reproduce the work. Article 2(1)(xv) defines reproduction as the physical replication of a work through printing, photography, or copying, through the recording of sound or visuals, or in any other way.
Article 23(1) gives the author the exclusive right to transmit the work to the public, which includes the right to make the work available for transmission if it is to be transmitted to the public via automatic public transmission. Article 2(1)(ix)-4 defines an automatic public transmission as a transmission to a member of the public, other than a broadcast or cablecast, that is made automatically in response to a request from the member of the public.
Article 2(1)(ix)-5 defines making a work available for transmission as making it available to be transmitted via automatic public transmission through either of two kinds of action, putting data on an automatic public transmission server that is connected to a public telecommunications network, or connecting to such a network a server that already holds the data. Articles 30 through 50 of the Act set out the limitations of copyrights.
Article 112(1) allows the author, copyright owner, owner of print rights, performer or owner of neighboring rights to file a claim against a person who is infringing or who is likely to infringe the copyright, or another of those rights, for the cessation or prevention of the infringement.
When filing that claim the right holder may also demand the destruction of objects that give rise to an act of infringement, objects made through an act of infringement, or machines or tools used solely for an act of infringement, or demand any other measure necessary for the cessation or prevention of the infringement.
Article 119(1) punishes a person that infringes a copyright, print rights or neighboring rights, subject to the exceptions it lists, with imprisonment for a term of up to ten years, a fine of up to ten million yen, or both. Article 119(2) punishes the persons it lists with imprisonment for a term of up to five years, a fine of up to five million yen, or both.
Those persons include, at item (v), a person that made available or presented a computer program facilitating the exploitation of an infringing work to the public. Article 113(2)(ii) describes such a program as one found to be deliberately leading the public to an infringing work when providing a transmitter identification code by means of the program, or one found to be used mainly for the exploitation of an infringing work by the public.
Item (v) of Article 119(2) excludes a person that merely provided the opportunity to make the program available on a website that includes a considerable number of other websites, or on a website used for a considerable number of programs, unless that person has continuously for a considerable period of time and without reasonable grounds failed to comply with a request from the copyright owner for the deletion of the infringing transmitter identification codes, or there are other special circumstances under which the person's action is found to unreasonably prejudice the interests of the copyright owner.
Article 123(1) provides that prosecution for the offence in Article 119(1) through (3), among others, may not be instituted unless an accusation is filed by the injured party. Article 123(2) disapplies that requirement for an offence under Article 119(1) committed by the acts its items set out, for the purpose of gaining a financial benefit in consideration of the act or of damaging the profit that the copyright owner is expected to gain by making available or presenting a fee-based work.
Article 124(1)(i) punishes a corporation whose representative, agent, employee or other worker commits an offence under Article 119(1) in connection with its business with a fine of up to three hundred million yen, in addition to the punishment of the offender. Article 62(1) of the Penal Code provides that a person who aids the principal offender is an accessory.
Article 8 of the Penal Code applies the general provisions of its Part I to crimes for which punishments are provided by other laws and regulations, except when those laws and regulations provide otherwise. The Copyright Act comes into effect on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app reuses other publishers' content, distributes a software product, trains models, generates content with AI or crawls the web.