[Article/Portrait Rights] Copyrightability of Snapshot Portrait Photographs and Whether They May Be Freely Used: The Tokyo Outsiders Case (2010
Updated: 6 hours ago
Article information
Article type: Publication review
Category: Copyright
Topics: Copyrightability
First published on this website: 2026-11-01
Display and classification checked: November 2, 2026
Originally published on Ameblo: 2025-04-23 (Japan time). Full English translation.
[Article/Portrait Rights] Copyrightability of Snapshot Portrait Photographs and Whether They May Be Freely Used: The Tokyo Outsiders Case (Atomu Takase, Intellectual Property Law and Policy Journal, Vol. 32 (2010))
*IP High Court, 2007 (Ne) 10003
A photograph taken by a former wife showing her husband and their child was used in a book describing the husband after the portion showing the child was cropped out.
⇒ Copyright infringement
Even everyday snapshots are copyrightable.
The copyright belongs to the former wife, who took the photograph.
Although the interview subject supplied the photograph, negligence was found.
Because it was not a work that had been made public, it did not qualify as quotation.
Infringement of the right of attribution
Infringement of the right of integrity
⇒ Even everyday snapshots are copyrighted, so even the subject cannot use them freely.
To avoid being sued by a former wife, perhaps one has no choice but to take one's own photographs ….
Cf. Cases in which “negligence” was rejected
• An academic book published following a proposal brought in by its creator
⇒ It would be harsh to require publishers to conduct a strict investigation into rights when publishing academic books with low profitability.
• A book on sports medicine
⇒ The new company was a physician well known in Yamanashi Prefecture, and the defendant publisher was a small local publisher.
• The plaintiff's work was not a widely known book.
Translator’s notes (editorial)
The source title is truncated after “2010”; retained.
The source says “the new company was a physician,” an apparent typographical anomaly. It is translated literally without guessing the intended subject.
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November 2, 2026: Added article information, classification, topics, language navigation, related articles where the same case was confirmed, consultation guidance, and SEO. The original text and first-published date were preserved.
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