I follow a popular otter account from my country, however today the admin of the page recieved a “suing threat” from a japanese otter owner about him using her videos in his account.
(context: she had already warned him before about using her videos but he got threatned because there’s no way to identify her otter from others in various reposts)
I have noticed that asian countries have a stricter culture in relation to one sharing content from another person, but only in relation to self made work such as art, indie animation and etc.
It doesnt quite make sense to me, since its an otter, a living being, and there isnt even a watermark or something to identify from her account on those videos.
And she already has 100k+ following, so it doesnt add up to me.
I’m wondering if this could be part of the culture? Please help me understand.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/11alvnp/can_someone_help_me_understand_japans_copyright/
5 comments
They’re her videos, what doesn’t make sense to you about someone not wanting their content copied without permission?
People are more sensitive about it in Japan but doesn’t change the fact that stealing content is generally shitty conduct.
She took the videos, she owns the copyright to them.
It’s that simple.
The otter itself is not copyrighted, but the videos of the otter. That is what is at issue here. Presumably even without a watermark, she is able to recognize her videos. Since she created the videos, which are original works, they belong to her. This is the same as in many other countries.
Linking to someone’s post/content is one thing, downloading it and posting it on your own site is another. Again, this is the same as in many other countries.
Which country are you talking about, a country not really caring about copyrights?
It’s stolen content in your example. It’s a basic copyright violation.
Having said that, image rights in particular are very strict in Japan. You aren’t allowed to take photographs at concerts, for example. Japanese celebrities’ wiki pages don’t have photographs.