Japanese Twitter Users Concerned About Being Charged for Tweeting Lyrics

It all began when Tomohito Kinose, one of the creators of popular Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga, dropped a tweet from his personal Twitter account last week. He warned that tweeting Japanese song lyrics would incur usage fees. Even though Kinose did not provide any other information, the message seemed to warn that copyright collection agency JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) was watching and waiting to collect.

It turns out that Kinose recently held a live workshop that said the users' tweets are actually public banter and are likely subject to copyright law. CNNgo says that JASRAC is now considering how to proceed with this issue, reminding us that this is the same agency that arrested a 73-year-old restaurant owner for singing Beatles songs in his own shop.