Hobankyo

, also known in English as the Council for Protection of Copyright of Television Program of Japan. Other names referencing Hōbankyō include "Hōsō Bangumi Kyōkai".

General information

Hōbankyō is an entity, representing Japan-based television networks, , Japanese anime manufacturers, screenwriters and record companies. Hōbankyō enforces intellectual property laws in areas both within and outside of Japan for their clients. In cooperation with other domestic and international law enforcement agencies around the world, Hōbankyō cracks down on organizations that illegally distribute Japanese entertainment content protected by Hōbankyō.

For-sale and rental items outside of Japan come under Hōbankyō. To legally sell items protected by Hōbankyō, stores must obtain licenses from Hōbankyō. For video rental items, Hōbankyō issues a holographic decal that is placed on the item.

Case studies

ref|domestic7 October 2005 - According to Article 30 of Japan's Copyright Act, a person is allowed to record and distribute television content for personal use, as long as the content is used domestically (i.e. within Japan.) It is referred to as Nihongo|"shiteki-fukusei"|私的複製 or "private duplication" (equivalent to the fair use doctrine in the U.S.) The recordings can then be sent to family and friends for their personal use. However, F-Shrine tried to create a business model based on shiteki-fukusei, and the practice was eventually deamed illegal in Tokyo District Court.

F-Shrine claimed that their activities fell under shiteki-fukusei, in that the user owned the equipment, he paid for the TV feeds, and he did all the programming himself. F-Shrine just provided the facilities. Even though a "hand and foot" transaction (the user physically walking over to the facility and obtaining the video) wasn't done in this scenario, the process should still be deamed legal. And, the actual video content was not sold or rented. Hōbankyō, however, claimed that these users must also be physically living in Japan in order for hiteki-fukusei to take effect.

Membersref|p2p of Hōbankyō

Television

*TBS
*NHK
*TV Asahi
*Fuji Television (Fuji TV)
*TV Tokyo

Record companies

See also

*Japanese copyright law

Footnotes

# [http://j-net21.smrj.go.jp/news/law/column/050414.html J-NET 21 (Japanese)] ]
# [http://www.peertopeer-jp.com/jtv/hou-ban-kyou/hou-ban-kyou_Frm.htm Peer-to-Peer (Japanese)]

External links

* [http://www.writersguild.or.jp/wgj/rights.html Japan Writers' Guild (Japanese)]