미승인국가의 저작물과 불법행위

Protection of copyright for non-recognized country -reading the judgment on North Korean movies-

In recent years, it was argued that if it is copyright infringement or not to use North Korea's movie in Japanese news report without paying copyright royalties. Japan does not approved North Korea as a country under the international law, so District Court of Tokyo held that "Japan does not have any duty to protect the copyrighted works of North Korea because Japan does not have any diplomatic relationship with North Korea". And Japan's Intellectual Property Appeal Court held that "Japan does not have any duty to protect the copyrighted works of unapproved country, but broadcasting the North Korea's movie without paying copyright royalties is socially unacceptable so that consist a tort." North Korea joined the Berne Convention in 2003, but Japan's Intellectual Property Appeal Court interpreted that "the fact that North Korea is a member of the international treaty is not enough to create the duty of protecting the copyrighted works". There is a heated argument about this decision because considering all the precedents of Japanese tort law, it is still insufficient to admitting the tort in this case. This is the first judicial decision about protection for the North Korea's copyright.