In this entry, I would like to give you an overview of anti-circumvention regulations in Japan (Japanese equivalent of DMCA). As you may know, anti-circumvention regulations are the laws that protect DRM (digital rights management) systems, or "technological protection measures."
Japan has amended its copyright law and unfair competition prevention law in 1999 to implement the 1996 WIPO treaties that mandate regulations to protect technological measures. As copyright law does not authorize copyright owners to control users' access to copyrighted works, the Japanese diet decided that copyright law should only protect "usage control" (i.e., technologies that control reproduction, modification, public transmission or other acts regulated under copyright law). As for "access control" (technologies controling people's access to works), they decided to include a limited scope of regulation under unfair competition prevention law.
In the following entries, I will provide a more detailed explanation of direct circumvention regulation and anti-device regulations in Japan.
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