[dvd-discuss] Slightly OT - Japanese copyrights

[Ronald Austin <ronald(at)caprock-spur.com>]

If this is too much off topic let me know and I won't do it again. :-)

I am a  fan of foreign (non American) flims. I have been a subscriber to the 
International Channel for quite a while and noticed fewer of the Japanese 
dramas and flims are subtitled nowdays. This prompted me to e-mail the  
International Channel's customer service and ask if they would show more 
subttiled shows. I didn't expect an answer, but the one I got really suprised 
me. Here is the part that caught my eye.


"In a nutshell, the Japanese government has ruled programming 
originating in Japan is created for the benefit of Japanese, 
and so English subtitles would constitute a violation of their 
copyright law."

They gave me a link to FujiTV's web site about subtitles but it seems to be a 
'404' (and the Damn flash crap crashes my Netscape. I got Mozilla to work and 
will browse the site and see what I can find.)

I have a wall full of Japanese flims, and Ainme and a lot of it is subtitled 
or dubbed so why the change?

If this was the end of the e-mail I would have forgotten about it, But they 
also sent me a list of websites that have "FanSubbed"  copies for sale and 
trade. Now fan subbing may be a violation of copyright but it has been 
tolerated by the Japanese studios mostly because it's too small a market to 
do any harm.  Them not allowing a licensed comercial company to export 
subtitled dramas just seems too strange.

Anybody here ever have any dealing with the Japanese copyright law?

I am going to e-mail FujiTV and ask about subtitles on their dramas.


Ronald