Translated News: New Rental Copyrights + Rental Shop

[Floating_Sakura]

Tatsuya, a Major Video Rental Store, Enters Comic Rental Business.

Starting the 13th of this month, Tsutaya begins comic rental, in which they charge 90 yen per volume.

Mr. Takashii Fujii of Tsutaya Goods says, "Because the rights of rental has been legally approved, when we start comic rental, our customers will support our business."

The copyright laws has been revised in 2004, which defines the right to loan books, with part of that rental fee used as copyrights fee being paid to the author. The intermediate organization that connects rental shops and authors has decided that the rules and fees is settled, and that the environment is ready for comic rental business. Shops can loan out comics by paying prime costs plus the charge of 265 yen. However, they can't lend out books for one month from the time the book is released.

Mr. Kirishima Shunichi, the director of a manga café, Dansan, comments on comic rental, "I cant deny it will be a threat, because our main customers are children who visit during the day, we may not be able to continue our business." According to author Shihei Yamazaki, who is also the director of "Workshop on the Copyrights of Mangaka in the 21st Century," says that they are considering a similar copyrights system for manga café and shikosho shops, which currently doesn't pay any fee to the authors."

Hideo Kagore, a lawyer specializes in copyrights issue comments on the new system, "they will restrict the number of people who can read manga; if they establishe a low to destroy manga café, even having manga books in barber becomes illegal."

Translated from: FNN News
Translated by Masahiko