日本近代文學名著50年版權到期

Last month the Yomiuri News on-line reported the following:

「宮本武蔵」や「三国志」で知られる作家・吉川英治らの作品が、今年から自由に利用・閲覧できるようになり、元日以降、ネット上に続々アップされている。

　没後５０年が過ぎて著作権の保護期間が切れたためで、今年は、ほかに「遠野物語」を著した民俗学の祖・柳田国男、詩人の室生犀星らも加わる“当たり年”。「吉川三国志がネットで無料で読める」などと、ファンらの間で注目が集まっている。

　文学作品の著作権は、著作権法で「著作者の死後５０年を経過するまで存続」と定められている。没した翌年から計算されるため、１９６２年の物故者の場合、昨年末で切れ、今年から無許可で使用できる。

　著作権の切れた作品をインターネット上で無料公開している「青空文庫」の運営者・富田倫生(みちお)さん（６０）は「人気作が多く、例年にない話題性」と話す。昨年末から「年が明けたら早く公開して」との要望が相次いでいたといい、元日に柳田の「遠野物語」、吉川の「私本太平記」、室生の「抒情小曲集」などを公開。吉川作品は今後、シリーズごとに毎月公開する計画という。

（2013年1月4日21時26分 読売新聞）

(試譯文)

The work of Eiji Yoshikawa who was known for his "Musashi Miyamoto" and "Three Kingdom Saga" and other writers could now be used and perused freely starting from this year; and one after another they came up in the network after the New Year's Day.

  Because 50 years had passed after the death, the protected period of the copyright ran out. Added to this bountiful year was the father of folklore Kunio Yanagida who wrote “The story of Tono”, in addition to Saisei Murou the poet. Attention had gathered among the fans who said that "Yoshikawa Three Kingdom Saga” could be read for free in network" etc.

  Under the Copyright Act the copyright of the literary work was set "to continue after author's death until 50 years has passed". Since the calculation was started from the year after the year of death, in the case of those who deceased in 1962 copyright would run out at the end of last year. Starting from this year, works could be used without obtaining permission.

  Mr. Michio Tomita (60), the operator of the "Blue Sky Library" which carried out in the Internet free public presentation of the work that had the copyright run out, said that " there are many popular work and it is not a regular yearly news topic". There had been a lot of requests since the end of last year saying that "to open it early to the public when the year begins". On the New Year's Day Yanagida's "Tono Tale", Yoshikawa’s "Shihon Taiheiki", and Murou’s "The Collection of Lyrical Short Pieces" etc were opened up. As for Yoshikawa’s work, there was a plan to open it to the public in series every month from now on.

The opening up of these literary works should be good news for the readers.