The Japan Association of Music Enterprises, the Japan Council of Performers’ Organizations and the Federation of Music Producers Japan announced on April 30, 2009 the establishment in May 2009 of an entity dedicated to the licensing of video content, tentatively called the Video Content Right-handling Organization.

The organization will handle collectively the procedures, dealing with neighboring rights, which must be undertaken to enable the reuse on the Internet of the images of TV shows featuring actors or musicians. Applications for licenses are scheduled to be accepted from April 2010.

The handling of the so-called “neighboring rights” of live performers is complex, due to the fact that many singers or actors appear in TV shows. The Video Content Right-handling Organization will address this issue by accepting applications and handling the related procedures in a bulk, in the hope to encourage the reuse of video contents. In concrete terms, the Organization will mostly centralize license applications filed by broadcasters and producing companies for the diffusion of TV programs on the Internet.

Source:
(i) http://pc.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/news/20090430/1014784/
(ii) http://journal.mycom.co.jp/news/2009/05/01/039/index.html
(iii) http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news/20090501ddm012040175000c.html