July 22, 2014

Creative Commons Japan
thinkC (Forum for the Copyright Term Extension Problem)
MIAU (Movement for the Internet Active Users)

This Forum has been continuously warning in Japan against the problem of copyright term extension which has been proposed in the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) negotiation.  During past 4 years, we have held 4 symposiums mainly focused on the copyright issues in TPP IP chapter —especially, extending copyright term, making criminal action possible without official complaint, and introducing statutory damages, and have submitted opinions on the subject to the government.  Those symposiums got much attention from large number of people including several tens of thousands of live streaming audience (See here and here and here).

With a background above, on July 17, the three member organizations of this Forum, in collaboration with Hon-no-Mirai-Kikin (Future of Book Foundation) which especially supports Aozora Bunko, a Japanese counterpart of Project Gutenberg, have become signatories to the international joint statement responding the call from 35 organizations including EFF, Creative Commons, KEI, Internet Archive and Association of Research Libraries.  At the same instant, we have published the Japanese translation of the statement to call for further support from and participation of Japanese organizations including cultural institutions such as museums, libraries and archives.

We deeply hope that our endorsement with the statement and publication of the Japanese translation thereof will have strong effect for further participation of organizations from Japan, one of the largest countries where the length of copyright term has been kept as “life plus 50 years”.