Music Copyrights: Balance Should Be Struck between Use and Protection

Editorial

14:40 JST, March 12, 2025

For the development of music culture, it is important that many people become familiar with musical works and creators are fairly compensated for their works. It is necessary to deepen understanding of such a system for copyright protection.

If a piece of music was used for a lesson at a music school where students learn to play musical instruments and sing songs, among other skills, should a copyright fee be paid for the use of the music? This issue, which has been disputed for many years between music schools and the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC), has finally been settled.

Regarding this issue, about 250 music school operators filed a lawsuit against JASRAC in 2017, claiming that the copyright fee collection was “unfair.” The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2022 that no copyright fees should be charged for students’ performances.

In response to the ruling, the two parties have tried to find a way to deal with the issue. According to an agreement, the operators pay JASRAC ¥750 per student per year for pieces of music the instructors played during their lessons, dating back to April 2018.

For junior high school students and younger, the fee will be reduced to ¥100 per year. Privately run schools are not targeted for fee collection. It took some time, but it can be said that the issue has been settled in a way that incorporated the positions of both sides.

Classical music, for example, for which the copyright protection period has expired, is not subject to copyright fees. But regarding relatively new pieces of music, the lyricists and composers have their copyrights.

Music schools operate based on tuition fees. For their lessons, they have a strong intention to use popular songs that students like. However, if the copyright fees are high, operators running the schools will be strained, and there is concern that the number of places to learn music could decrease.

This agreement was probably reached to strike a balance between use and protection by keeping the fees low.

Apart from music schools, since the scope of copyright fee collection was broadened in 2000 following the revision of the Copyright Law, JASRAC has also been demanding fees from shops, fitness clubs and other entities that play background music.

At first, these shops and other entities complained, saying that they just played CDs they had bought and they did not take any money from customers, so they could not understand why they had to pay fees.

While it is important to protect the rights of lyricists and composers, it is no wonder that these users would be confused if they are suddenly asked to pay copyright fees. It is desirable for JASRAC to continue to thoroughly explain the structure of copyrights to users and make a compromise.

In recent years, JASRAC has been working to collect copyright fees from music distribution services and video-sharing sites, among others. In the digital field, there is also the issue of how to protect manga and movie copyrights from entities such as pirate sites.

In order to develop Japan’s content industry, the government needs to do its utmost to address copyright issues.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 12, 2025)