Japanese Authors And the Google Opt-Out Bandwagon

Yukihiro Funaki of the Japan Visual Copyright Association emailed me with important information about how the proposed Google Books settlement is playing across the Pacific. JVCA, an association approved by Japan's Ministry of Culture, is both a private licensing company and a nonprofit promoting copyright awareness. JVCA represents nearly 400 poets, novelists, journalists, critics, and illustrators.

According to Funaki, about 190 individual Japanese authors have opted out of the settlement. JVCA is the only organization there to have chosen "group opt-out," which Funaki described as a brave step "because people are afraid of being ostracized." The 3,000-member Japan Writers Association announced support of the settlement.

This article in The Japan Times, "Google Books leaves Japan in legal limbo," discusses some of the reaction and authorial politics:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nc20090722a1.html