It seems the Copyright protection has expired on some of the older Japanese movie
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/japanese%20court%20rules%20pre-1953%20movies%20in%20public%20domain_1002318A Japanese company that has released at bargain prices DVDs of movie classics produced prior to 1953 may continue to do so, a Japanese court ruled Tuesday.
Kyodo News said that the Tokyo District Court rejected a request by Viacom's Paramount Pictures that it order a halt to the sales, ruling that copyrights to the movies had expired and that they were now in the public domain.
Paramount had argued that a 2004 law extended the copyrights by 20 years; however, the Japanese court said that the law could not be applied retroactively.
The movies in question are being sold by in the DVD format for as low as $4.40, while the price for the Paramount-distributed copy of the same movie is about $36.70.
Its nice to see the law being upheld fairly and squarely, the time is up on paramounts monopoly and now anyone can enjoy the pre 1953 material for free.
I wonder if the same provision regarding retrospective legislation is applicable in other countries besides Japan, I can see this being a bonanza time for file sharers if the same decisions are made in other countries
