英語（English）
One day in December 2021, Toei Animation became a problem overseas.
It all started when about 150 of foreign Youtube user TotallyNotMark's anime and manga commentary videos were deleted from Youtube in one day due to a complaint from the rights holder.
TotallyNotMark was so angry that he made a video protesting against Toei Animation and Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece. (Closed to the public on Dec. 12.)
Almost all of the overseas viewers were sympathetic and supportive of TotallyNotMark, and even went so far as to demonstrate boycotts.
The reaction of the Japanese was quite the opposite.
As you can see from TotallyNotMark's video, anime and manga images were used to create the video.
Therefore, the majority of Japanese people felt that it was inevitable that the video would be removed upon petition by the rights holder.
Why is there such a difference in opinions and reactions between Japan and other countries?
The key was the existence of "fair use".
What is fair use, which has become a common practice in the United States and other countries?
"Fair use" is one of the defenses to claims of copyright infringement recognized by the Copyright Act of the United States. According to Article 107 of the country's Copyright Act, even if a copyrighted work is used without the permission of the copyright owner, the act of use does not constitute copyright infringement if the use is evaluated as a fair use under four criteria."
1. the purpose and character of the use (e.g., whether the use is for commercial or non-commercial educational purposes)
2. the nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Simply put, if the conditions are met and the use is fair, it is not a violation of copyright law even without the author's permission.
In light of the above, most of the commentary videos on foreign Youtube, including TotallyNotMark's, fall into category 4. This is because they are advertising.
Therefore, it is understandable that the reaction outside of Japan is to think that the removal of the video is unfair.
However, the feeling of Japanese people is completely different.
In the first place, fair use does not exist in Japan.
In Japan, not only music, but also still images are subject to removal for copyright infringement if the author feels it is detrimental.
Videos using images of Mickey Mouse would be deleted in an instant.
Toei Animation is a Japanese company. Of course, it has branches overseas, but it is a Japanese company.
Eiichiro Oda is probably a Japanese living in Japan, One Piece was published in Japan, and the anime was released in Japan.
Therefore, as a reaction in Japan, I think it is inevitable that the video should be removed by the right holder's complaint according to Japanese rules.
The root cause of this uproar is the difference between countries that have fair use and countries that do not.
Should Japanese copyrighted works be subjected to foreign rules?
Should Japanese laws be revised?
Are foreign rules all that should be applied?
The problems are piling up, but I am personally very curious to see how this uproar will be resolved.
