Japan Tells US to Stop Using Pokemon, Naruto in Official Posts
Japanese Govt Asks US Govt to Stop Using Mario, Pokemono, Naruto Meme Postings
Japan's foreign ministry has formally expressed concern to the US Embassy in Tokyo over the Trump administration's unauthorized use of Japanese anime and game characters like Pokemon and Naruto in official social media posts. The ministry, which raised the issue in April and June, emphasized that even government entities need permission from creators to use intellectual property and warned of potential copyright infringement and damage to the works' image. The move comes amid growing criticism from American artists over the administration's use of such content.
Even public institutions need permission from the creators to use intellectual property.
- comrade1234
I'm not sure if you get this in the news in the USA but trump and his administration are pretty much constantly mocked and made fun of in the press - at least here in Europe. It's just constant legitimate mockery about specific incidents - most recent I saw was the press trying to figure out if trump actually understands the meaning of the word "decapitate" as he used it in a nonsensical way a couple of days ago.
Oh, I bring this up because of the picture they used in this article.
- ronsor
Somehow I have a feeling this administration is not going to stop.
- londons_explore
Couldn't the real copyright owner just sue the US government and get a payout?
The fact this doesn't seem to be happening suggests that perhaps the copyright owner doesn't care?
- Razengan
This is what starts World War III
- TZubiri
This is one of those cases were I'm just stumped for answers, not sure who is right, could go either way.
Doesn't look like a high stakes case at face value. But if you look at the components individually, there's a lot of the most difficult elements. International law, the three powers interacting, intellectual property...
The matter of the dispute seems inconsequential, but my subjective opinion is that IP often uses a lot of the same judicial mechanisms that higher stakes civil and even criminal cases use, IP is often the guinea pig of the full extent of the law, you'd think it's the other way around, but cases like murder and CSAM often rely on good will, common sense, shared notions of right vs evil, journalism. In cases like IP disputes, whatever judgments are achieved, are done through an almost exclusively mechanistic implementation of the law (with modestly deep pockets fueling the machine, sure it's big companies, but let's not pretend nintendo, LaLiga or even Hollywood run the world).
I'm leaning towards fair use, I haven't seen the actual memes, but if it's truly a meme, that would be transformative. So it wouldn't depend on the fact that one party is an executive branch representing a country, nor the fact that there's two different legal systems. That said, fair use is an American concept, not sure Japan has that. At any rate, this is all mostly American jurisdiction, so if by American courts this is legal according to American rules, Nintendo has an American su […]