The Cabinet Order to Partially Amend the Copyright Law Enforcement Order (Cabinet Order No. 210 of 1999) was promulgated on June 25, 1999, to go into effect on July 1.
This amendment newly adds "digital video cassette recorder (DVCR)" and "data video home system (D-VHS)" video recorders and the recording media used therein as recording machine and recording media to which the private video recording compensation payment system applies.

(1) Overview of the private video recording compensation payment system

The private video recording compensation payment system imposes the obligation to make certain compensation payments to rightholders if one makes audio and video recordings, for the purpose of private use, on a digital audio or video recording medium prescribed by Cabinet order (a specified recording medium) with digital audio or video recording machine prescribed by Cabinet order (specified recording machine) (Article 30 paragraph 2 of the Law).
The compensation payment is paid in a lump sum when specified recording machine and specified recording media are purchased, and the compensation payments are apportioned to each rightholder through administrative organizations designated by the Director-General of the Agency for Cultural Affairs (the Society for the Administration of Remuneration for Audio Home Recording (SARAH) for audio recording, and the Society for the Administration of Remuneration for Video Home Recording (SARVH) for video recording) (Articles 104-2 through 104-9).
Thus far, four types of specified recording machine and specified recording media have been designated for private audio recording: digital tape recorder (DAT) (Copyright Law Enforcement Order, Article 1 paragraph 1), digital compact cassette (DCC) (Article 1 item 2) and minidisc (MD) (Article 1 item 3) were designated in June 1993, and compact disc recordable (CD-R) and compact disc rewritable (CD-RW) (Article 1 item 4) were designated in November 1998.

(2) Content of the enforcement order revision (Underlining denotes the amended portions.)

This amendment is the first designation of digital video recording machine and recording media since the private video recording compensation payment system was inaugurated in 1992. Specifically, the relevant recording machine and recording media are DVCR, which came on the market in October 1997, and D-VHS video recording machine, which came on the market in October 1998, and the magnetic tape used for these.

[Separation of audio recording machine and video recording equipment]
In this amendment, first, provisions for video recording machine are set forth in Article 1 paragraph 2, and in paragraph 1, which is the provision that covers audio recording machine, "except equipment prescribed in paragraph 2" appears as a proviso, while in "those provided for video recording" in paragraph 2 there is the proviso "including those that also have the function of digital audio recording."
In the Copyright Law, "audio recording" is defined as "fixation of sounds on some material forms" (Article 2 paragraph 1 item 13) and "video recording" is defined as "fixation of a sequence of images on some material forms" (Article 2 paragraph 1 item 14), while the "video recording machine" that is normally commercially available is thought of as performing both "audio recording" and "video recording" as its functions. Thus, it was decided to make the machine covered by paragraph 1 "machine that performs only audio recording," and to provide in paragraph 2 for video recording machine that also has the function of audio recording.
The result is that the compensation payments related to "video recording machine" are all distributed to rightholders through SARVH.

[Limitation of machine used for private video recording]
Paragraph 2 provides "except for those that also have a function as a video camera." The intent here is to exclude from the machine to which compensation payment applies handy-type video camera recorders that are used for recording things that are not works, such as ordinary scenes and people.
Paragraph 2 also refers to "those used mainly for video recording." This provision confirms that compensation payment does not apply to machine that has generality and is used for recording and preserving digital information that is processed by computers (general-purpose equipment).

[DVCR and D-VHS]
Next we consider the machine prescribed in each item. Heretofore, in Cabinet order designations of specified recording machine and specified recording media the focus has been on the functions of the machine, etc., and the covered machine, etc. has been specified by prescribing three items: <1> the recording method, <2> the sampling frequency (the number of times per second that an analog signal is converted to a digital signal), and <3> the recording medium. This latest Cabinet order takes the same approach, prescribing three features for each of the two formats: for DVCR, <1> the recording method must be an electromagnetic recording method, <2> the image signal sampling frequency must be 13.5 MHz for brightness (intensity) and 3.375 MHz for hue (color tone) and chroma (saturation), and <3> the recording medium must be 6.35 mm-wide magnetic tape (limited to those housed in a cassette of 125 mm width, 78 mm depth, and 14.6 mm height); for D-VHS, <1> the recording method must be an electromagnetic recording method, <2> the image that undergoes analog-digital conversion must be recorded as it is regardless of what sampling frequency is used (bitstream recording), and <3> the recording medium must be 12.65 mm-wide magnetic tape. The limitation of the recording medium, in the proviso, to "those housed in a cassette of 125 mm width, 78 mm depth, and 14.6 mm height" is intended to exclude from compensation payment the minitapes that are used as the recording medium in so-called handy-type video cameras.
Similarly, the recording media referred to in Article 1-2 are defined as those used for audio recording equipment in paragraph 1 and those used for video recording machine in paragraph 2, and the provision in "video recording" that "both audio recording and video recording are included" follows the same reasoning as in the case of machine.
Moreover, the wording "magnetic tape . . . used for digital video recording" refers to the type used exclusively in digital video recording machine; this provision does not apply to magnetic tape (S-VHS tape, etc.) that is not used exclusively for digital video recording, even if it is technically able to record digital-format signals.

[Rate of compensation payment]
Under the "private video recording compensation payment rules" approved by the Director-General of the Agency for Cultural Affairs (which go into effect at the same time as the Copyright Law Enforcement Order), the amount of compensation payment is set, until March 2002, as 1% of the standard price for specified recording machine and 1% of the standard price for specified recording media.