Copyright

"Asahi Shimbun Cross-Search for Library" and its contents, including articles and images are protected by Japanese Copyright Law and international treaties. Users are forbidden to do any of the following with exceptional cases stipulated in the copyright laws: duplication; public transmission; translation; adaptation, and sales. The Asahi Shimbun Company shall not permit any other forms of unauthorized use of the database, which would infringe the company and third parties' rights.
Publication(articles and images) in the Kikuzo Digital News Archives (hereinafter called "the Service") are protected by Japanese Copyright Law and international treaties such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. The data in the archives are only used freely within the limit of the contract agreed by the archive's user and Asahi Shimbun Company and the boundaries stipulated in the copyright related laws and treaties.

Users could only use the publication without permission under exceptional circumstances such as; "duplication for private use." Other major examples are listed as follows. However, no alteration or deleting is permitted. Also, permission by Copyright Owner is generally necessary in order for the user to summarize the material.

Reproduction for Private Use

Private use is stipulated in the Copyright Law's Article 30 as "Reproduction by the user himself/herself for the purpose of his/her own personal use, family use or other similar uses within a limited circle". Reproduction for such private use must be conducted by the user himself (herself). Posting the articles and photographs on the Internet site is not regarded as private use, even if the owner of the site is a private person. Showing works on the Internet means that many people would have access to the works, and therefore not considered as "family use or other similar uses within a limited circle."

Quotations

Generally, using part of an author's work is called "quotations." However, Article 32 of the Copyright Law stipulates quotation as follows:

Article 32

It shall be permissible to make quotations from a work already made public, provided that their making is compatible with fair practice and their extent does not exceed that justified by purposes such as news reporting, criticism or research. In general, proper quotation must fulfill the following three definitions:

(1) Principal and Accessories

The quoted part is subordinate to the work as a whole, in quantity and in quality. An author who would like to quote a work must possess certain amount of contents, and quote from certain work in order for supplement or explanatory purposes in his or her work. The contents in which the author wishes to write must possess an original core, and what the author wishes to quote must be an accessory, which has an obvious relativity to the main contents. The quantity of quotation must be shorter than the quantity of the original work. If author writes "There had been an Asahi Shimbun article as follows;" and then continued with the contents copied from the database, it is not considered as quotation.

(2) Clear Distinction

The quoted work must be noted clearly, such as use of quotation marks. The work itself and quotation must be clearly distinctive.

(3) Bibliography

Normally, an author must contain the name of the authors and works in which he or she has used as quotation in a bibliography. If the user of this service wishes to include the quotation from the service, it would be necessary to show a bibliography such as: "quoted from (published date) edition of the Asahi Shimbun, acquired from the Asahi Shimbun Article Database."

Use in educational institutions(schools, et. al)

When educational institutions, such as elementary, secondary and high schools that wish to use the articles and images in the database in items such as drills and examination papers, there is basically no need to acquire authorization of the copyright owner, the Asahi Shimbun. However, it must be clearly defined that the article or the image had been acquired from the database.

Leaflets and/or fliers to hand out to every student are not considered as material used in class. Therefore, authorization shall be necessary.

As stated above, specific exceptions stipulated in the Copyright Law, unauthorized use of the data, such as articles and images contained in the service is not permitted without an authorization from the Asahi Shimbun Company. If you wish to use the material, please contact our legal section beforehand. The use of the photographs or digital image showing our service on these images, are also an item for authorization. In the database, we also contain works in which we have received authorization from the work's original author. In such case, please understand the fact that an authorization from the original author is also required.

For inquiries and questions

Please contact the following for detailed information about the articles and images contained in the database and other issues written on this page.

For inquiries and questions

The Asahi Shimbun Database Support