As part of the Intellectual Property Reform that is current going on in Japan, the Copyright Council at the Agency of Cultural Affairs (Japanese equivalent of Copyright Office) has discussed about the possibility of expanding anti-circumvention regulations.
Recently, they came up with a report (sorry, Japanese only), concluding that a further, careful discussion is necessary before the National Diet moves for any amendment.
In the following, I will briefly summarize the discussion.According to the Discussion Report dated July 2005, the reason why they may need legislative change is stated as follows:
"[B]ecause the technologies avoiding illegal reproduction and distribution of copyrighted works are progressing, part of which is the access control technologies that are add on to the copy control technologies. As technologies have changed from those at the time of legislation [of anti-circumvention regulations], we need to review the possible application of the current statutes under anti-circumvention regulations in Copyright Law and the necessity of revision of the current statutes."
After a six-month discussion within the Digital Working Team under the Copyright Council, the Working Group decided to continue the discussion while paying attention to the technological changes in the future, and get a final conclusion in 2007. As the Discussion Report concludes:
"It can be observed that, corresponding to the increasing risk of fights infringement by digital and network technologies, copyright protection technologies have become more complex in the direction of overlapping copy control and access control. However, at this point of time, the effect of current Copyright regulation does not seem to have declined so far.
"However, there was an opinion that access control devices should be regulated under Copyright law, because there could be a case where access control served as deterrence of [illegal] reproduction. For example, by decrypting and loading onto the PC the content of DVD disc using ripping software, people can invalidate copy control technologies on DVD. However, on the other hand, there was an opinion that regulating technologies that control 'mere viewing or listening,' which is not part of copyright, brings about the substantial effect of giving copyright holders a new right to control users’ viewing and listening. Therefore, we need further discussion regarding the purpose of copyright law, trend of international discussions, the boundary of where technologies, law and contracts should give overlapping protection."
The careful attitude of the Copyright Council could be regarded relatively wise, given the fact that there were not outstanding harms recognized now by the Japanese society. It is generally very difficult to narrow down the protection once given to right holders, therefore, it is better to refrain from expanding the rights when there is no urgent need.