Work has begun to realize a scheme under which digital versions of publications owned by the National Diet Library would be distributed for a fee through the Internet.
Together with the library and other related organizations, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry plans to establish a committee soon to consider specific business models, including such issues as rights management and revenue distribution.
The Japan Book Publishers Association decided Tuesday to participate in the committee, and the Japan Writers' Association, a group of copyright holders, also is likely to join in.
Should the idea come to fruition, it would represent the birth of a new framework for the distribution of publications in Japan.
[Snip]
With the June revision of the Copyright Law, the library also became able to digitize publications for the purpose of preservation without copyright holders' approval. Under the supplementary budget for fiscal 2009, the library will digitize about 900,000 volumes acquired through 1968.
The scheme under consideration would provide digital data of the library's publications to a new organization responsible for rights management. The digitized publications would be distributed for purchase through various delivery companies and the profits distributed among authors, publishing companies and other relevant parties.
Concerned people including Makoto Nagao, chief librarian of the National Diet Library, and lawyer Masayuki Matsuda, an expert on copyright--have been working behind the scenes to develop the idea. U.S. Internet giant Google is working to create a worldwide database of titles, and Nagao, Matsuda and others are seeking to establish a database of publications that is unique to Japan.
FreePint Shop:
VIP LiveWire:
