翻訳コラム

著作権法改正により違法ダウンロードの対象が拡大される、と世間では騒がれています。改めてどのようなことなのか解説します。
「ある人が市販のCDやビデオ(有償著作物)を購入して、そこに記録されている音楽や映画を著作者に無断でコピーしてネット上にアップロードした、これを別の人が違法アップロードされたものと知りながらダウンロードして、たとえば自分のパソコンに保存した」
このような行為が違法ダウンロードであり、著作権や著作者隣接権侵害と認定されます。
しかし、「ある人が市販の漫画本や書籍を写真にとって著作者に無断でインターネットにアップロードし、別の人がこれを違法と知りながらダウンロードし、たとえば自分のパソコンに保存した」行為は、ここでいう違法ダウンロードには当たりません。静止画は対象に含まれないというのが現在の著作権法だからです。
しかし漫画本、書籍など静止画像も違法ダウンロードの対象に含めようというのが今回の著作権法改正です。
ところが報道によると、これは著作権侵害の対象を拡大し過ぎであり、この改正に「待った」がかかったとのことです。
しかし音楽や映像と漫画や書籍を同じ著作物でありながらなぜ区別するのか、私にはわかりません。漫画や書籍でも違法と知りながらダウンロードする行為は、違法と判断してもよいのではないでしょうか?

The amendment to the Copyright Law will expand the range of objects that are considered illegal to download. This news is causing a disturbance with the public. I will explain what this news means today.
“A person bought a commercially available CD or video (which are paid copyrighted works), copied, and then uploaded the music or videos stored therein to the Internet without the authorization of the copyright holders; another person, knowing that the music/videos were illegally uploaded, downloaded and stored them on their PC”.
Such acts are considered illegal downloading and infringing upon copyrights and neighboring rights.
However, the following act is not considered illegal downloading: “a person photographed commercially available comics or books and uploaded these photos to the Internet without the authorization of the copyright holders; another person, knowing that the images were illegally uploaded, downloaded and stored them on their PC”. This is because still images are not included in the objects that are considered illegal to download under the current Copyright Law. However, the amended Copyright Law has been designed to expand the range of objects that are considered illegal to download to include still images like comics or books.
Reportedly, however, this amendment was ordered to be suspended because it would result in an overly excessive expansion of acts subject to copyright infringement.
Yet, I have no idea why music and videos are treated differently from comics or books, despite being the same in that they are copyrighted works. I think that knowingly downloading illegally uploaded comics or books should be considered illegal.