Featured

copyright

Era’s Adventures in Intellectual Property Rightsland

Era’s Adventures in Intellectual Property Rightsland

Recently a new game developed for Android devices, Era’s Adventures was turning heads for its main character, Era’s slight resemblance to Nintendo’s famous dinosaur Yoshi.  The attention had gotten so big that it caught the eye of Nintendo’s legal team who decided to have a chat with the developer, Botond Kopacz.

Read More

How the Expired Copyright License of Old Literary Works Could Keep Japan’s Cultural Soil Fertile

How the Expired Copyright License of Old Literary Works Could Keep Japan’s Cultural Soil Fertile

When it comes to reading famous literary works whose copyright license has expired, there is one piece of software that is renowned for doing the job rather well. It goes by the name of “Aozora Bunko” and is a digital contents reader available on a wide variety of devices; there’s even a version available for smart phone users. It is currently host to a plethora of copyright-free material rich in Japanese history and culture. What’s particularly exciting is that the more time goes by, the more the library of works can be seen to grow.

Anyone with an interest in old Japanese masterpieces – and can read Japanese – will surely be lured in by what this software has to offer. In this connection, on January 1 this year, the legendary writer Eiji Yoshikawa’s work “Miyamoto Musashi” is also set to be added to the collection. Miyamoto Musashi is a bestselling novel depicting the life of legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto, who actually existed during the Japanese Edo era.

Just what makes all this free content possible is the rule that governs copyright licensing laws: 50 years after an author has passed away, copyrighted works are released freely into the public domain.

Read More

A Year After Launch, iPhone’s Siri Still Packs a Few Surprises, But Remains a Slave to Her Bosses

A Year After Launch, iPhone’s Siri Still Packs a Few Surprises, But Remains a Slave to Her Bosses

While there are still a few kinks to be straightened out, and it’s not quite the life-changing service that Apple have been claiming it to be, the iPhone’s PA program Siri is still capable of making a few users chuckle.

Perhaps just seeing what their new iPhone’s electronic assistant could do can do, or perhaps just immensely bored one day, a Japanese iPhone user told Siri something about herself–

“Tomorrow’s my birthday…”

Read More

Award Winning Manga to be Freely Used by Anyone for Anything Anytime, Author Will Not Request Royalties

Award Winning Manga to be Freely Used by Anyone for Anything Anytime, Author Will Not Request Royalties

Shuho Sato, the writer of Burakku Jyakku ni Yoroshiku, which commonly translates to “Say Hello to Black Jack,” is planning to make the award winning, 10 million copy selling manga available for free “second use.”

This means that after 15 September anyone in the world will be free to novelize, televise, create merchandise, or in any way adapt the original work for either commercial or non-commercial purposes without having to pay royalties.  This is the latest move in the writer’s quest to find alternatives to the “outdated” model of intellectual property rights.

Read More