Mangaka Ken Akamatsu Discusses Copyright Provisions of Trans-Pacific Partnership

by arsonal
Oct 6, 2015 11:48 PM | 26 Comments

On Monday, the United States, Japan, and 10 other Pacific Rim nations announced that they have completed negotiations for the multilateral trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP has been described as the largest regional trade accord in history, accounting for nearly 40 percent of global GDP.

It now heads toward ratification by each of the participating countries. The New York Times reports that the U.S. Congress is expected to debate on ratification through at least April 2016. Domestic opposition is also expected in several other participating countries, including Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Although the final 30-chapter text of the TPP has yet to be published, the Cabinet Secretariat of Japan has released its outline of the agreement. Chapter 18 of the document contains proposals for the standardization of intellectual property laws.

Mangaka Ken Akamatsu (pictured, Love Hina), who has been a vocal opponent of the TPP, took to Twitter on Monday to give his thoughts on the outline. Akamatsu points out that, according to the current proposals, complaints of copyright infringement will be assessed against whether or not the derivative work affects the profitability of the original.

In his view, this means that cosplayers and small doujin circles will not be affected because of their low profiles. However, larger doujin circles with significant Comiket sales are likely to be impacted. Shops selling doujin content may be forced to close altogether.

Meanwhile, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the National Diet of Japan will only begin its deliberations in April 2016 at the earliest. Given the timeline, Akamatsu believes that the organizers of Comiket may place genre-specific restraints as early as Comiket 90, which will be held in August 2016.

However, Akamatsu also points out that lawmakers from Japan's ruling and opposition parties have given signals that they would like to implement legislation protecting the status of Comiket. Given that there has been no opposition to this move, he believes there is no cause for panic among creators at this point.

Source: The New York Times, The Japan News, Yaraon

Exhibition Interest

20 of 26 Comments Recent Comments

they talk about protecting copyrights
but they're actually thinking about profit
if this happens the mass will have to pay for everything
and sellers must advertise more

it's like they're removing the first try in everything...how shitty can the world be
all hail piratebay..jk

Oct 11, 2015 2:36 AM by Llumi

Well...this isn't good news.

Westerners stand a good chance of getting fucked by this.

Hell, everyone is going to get fucked by this. Who am I kidding.

Oct 10, 2015 1:13 AM by Jonesy974

Most derivative doujinshi are probably illegal, existing only thanks to a well-established convention whereby the industry almost never sues doujin authors. (When there are suits, it is usually only because doujinshi cross some bright line such as excessive similarity with the original.) In fact, Japan's fair use laws are no looser than United States statute, so little in the law stops copyright holders in Japan from being as destructively harsh as their American comics counterparts.

This all goes to show that copyright law has not kept up with actual practices, and I'm sure you can think of many more ways in which this is the case. Copyright is broken and needs to be reformed, perhaps radically. The problem with the TPP is that it would lock Japan, the US, and the other signatories into the current system. There's a heck of a lot more that sucks about the treaty—access to life-saving drugs might be at risk in some countries because of patent provisions. ('Might' since the full text still hasn't been released.) It can't even free trade much, so it really is all about the interests of big corporations. The US can stop the TPP, though. Most presidential candidates of both big parties are against, so if enough constituents contact them, members of Congress will pay attention this time.

Oct 9, 2015 12:02 AM by Miporin

This kind of complacency will bite the entire anime industry in the ass soon.
Fortunately, Hilary Clinton has voiced her disagreement over the guidelines of the TPP, so there may still be some way to topple down the TPP before it becomes fully implemented.

Oct 8, 2015 10:40 PM by Orix

I'm at a loss for words...

Oct 8, 2015 3:49 PM by soulless4now

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!!!!!

NO ONE told me Doujins were going to be affected by this TPP...

OK...OK....serious shit here guys....they're fucking with our glorious doujins.

Fuck Obama and this TPP shit!

zadkieI said:
Hopefully we still can read manga and watch anime online!

Who gives a shit about manga and anime!

Our doujins are in trouble!

Oct 8, 2015 12:26 PM by --ALEX--

zadkieI said:
Hopefully we still can read manga and watch anime online!

Nope. All those sites are going down. You got maybe a year left until they're all gone, so enjoy it while you can.

Oct 7, 2015 2:36 PM by removed-user

AzusaGAF said:

ios said:

this is too vague or too general as a law

TPP is not a law. Its an agreement and local authorities should change/create laws in order to implement it all.

the rest of my points still stands though and maybe i should have said this

Electronic said:
to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement
https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp

thats what TPP does, the IP laws are being somewhat synchronize or shared in all the nation involved on this

the TPP is never meant to protect and benefit the consumers and workers, the TPP is meant to protect more and give benefits more to businesses especially corporations

Oct 7, 2015 1:29 PM by deg

ichii_1 said:
The american comics companies are the major supporters of this.
They want to ban everything that's non official, they even said this will kill the industry or something LOL even with all the billions and billions they make XD

It's already happening. Nintendo/Pokemon Company been aggressive targeting those unofficial gathering and sue the coordinator.

Oct 7, 2015 9:07 AM by mlcdl

Superman does not approve of his creators' corporate tyranny.

Oct 7, 2015 8:29 AM by Hoppy

The american comics companies are the major supporters of this.
They want to ban everything that's non official, they even said this will kill the industry or something LOL even with all the billions and billions they make XD

Oct 7, 2015 8:21 AM by ichii_1

If they're going to do this, they should at least make all Anime they want to protect widely available for everyone around the world. Streaming, DVDs and all that. Crunchyroll does a good job of just that and there could be more services like that.

They should leave Comiket participators alone, though. It's just fans showing their love for a show for a little amount of cash, usually just enough to cover for the printing expenses.

Oct 7, 2015 8:16 AM by Keitaro004

Hopefully we still can read manga and watch anime online!

Oct 7, 2015 8:11 AM by zadkieI

Hopefully Comiket is protected, the industry desperately needs it for talent. As for genre specific restrictions, that's not TPP's doing but something worse (remember the warning posts I've done over the past 2 years), even if we don't bite the TPP bullet that can still come into effect.

Oct 7, 2015 7:22 AM by Hoppy

complaints of copyright infringement will be assessed against whether or not the derivative work affects the profitability of the original.

SO no more dank cosplays? Not only for anime but for anything in general that causes harm to large companies. e.g. (capcom, sega, microsoft etc. . .)

No more Like these types since it will decrease profitability on their characters
[spoiler]

[/spoilers]
These lot will likely be sued if profit sales go down and "Freedom of Expression" is going to be dead since people will likely be in a fine line in regards to cosplay.

Oct 7, 2015 6:58 AM by MantaBaby

ios said:

this is too vague or too general as a law

TPP is not a law. Its an agreement and local authorities should change/create laws in order to implement it all.

Oct 7, 2015 5:29 AM by AzusaERA

I just hope this won't stop us from watching/making what we love..
This is seriously fucked up.

At this rate anime is gonna be something exclusive to the Japanese or something?
Sigh, I hope that day will never come.

Oct 7, 2015 3:08 AM by AlexandricLeo

zadkieI said:

DateYutaka said:

it wont cuase the us lame dick psudo leftist president back TPP os hes forcing TPP though

It still have chance to fail.

no most nations will say yes

Oct 7, 2015 3:07 AM by DateYutaka

arsonal said:
reports that the National Diet of Japan will only begin its deliberations in April 2016 at the earliest.

Deliberations about TPP?

DateYutaka said:

zadkieI said:
I hope TPP fail. Please!

it wont cuase the us lame dick psudo leftist president back TPP os hes forcing TPP though