robin_reala a day ago

I’m adding a one-act Tanizaki play to Standard Ebooks’ Tanizaki collection[1] on the 1st January. Some Akutagawa shorts go into US public domain next year too. (Note: copyright is based on the translation date, not the original language.)

[1] https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/tanizaki-junichiro/short-f...

  • bentley a day ago

    > Note: copyright is based on the translation date, not the original language.

    It’s based on both. For example, a translation or other derivative work whose copyright expired “early” in the US due to non‐renewal would still be encumbered by the copyright of the original. That’s basically what happened to It’s a Wonderful Life—the film is technically in the public domain, but is still held in Paramount’s iron grip by way of the renewed copyright of the original short story.

shuoga a day ago

The "TPP11," which includes a provision to extend the term of protection to 70 years, will enter into force on December 30, 2018.

In Japan, the term of copyright protection will, in principle, be 70 years after the death of the author (or 70 years after publication for works published anonymously, under a pseudonym, or in the name of a corporate body).

Copyrights that have already expired at the time of enforcement will not be revived (principle of non-retroactivity of protection).

Consequently, no works will newly enter the public domain for the next 20 years.

From Japan Library Association: https://www.jla.or.jp/hogokikan-encho/#:~:text=%E4%BF%9D%E8%...

  • zozbot234 a day ago

    Worth noting that Canada is in the same boat since 2022. Australia has only recently seen authors enter the public domain again, since the change there was made in 2004.

GolDDranks a day ago

Note that the copyright is not about the source country of the work, but where do make/distribute the copy. Do you live in Japan, or are you interested in Japanese works? (Or both, possibly.)

  • wahnfrieden a day ago

    I make https://reader.manabi.io for a living

    • GolDDranks 3 hours ago

      That's NEAT! I live in Japan myself, and I am a passionate Japanese learner (and used to be a teacher too) of multiple decades. Besides, I'm interested in natural language processing and language related technology, and used to study second language acquisition research back in the university. If you ever take part into any tech / language events or meetups, it would be nice to hang out and hear about the development of that app.