Japan's Supreme Court last month handed down a final decision in a dispute on whether copyrights on movies released in 1953 are protected by a 2003 revision to the Copyright Law. Although the revision extended copyright protection from 50 to 70 years, the top court concluded that it does not protect movies released that year.

This legally enables DVD sales at a cheaper (noncopyrighted) price of films such as "Shane," "Roman Holiday," "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "Tokyo Story," an Ozu Yasujiro classic. This may be a boon to movie fans, but it makes for an awkward situation in that some of these movies are set to enjoy another 20 years of copyright protection overseas even though their copyright protection in Japan has expired.

The revised Copyright Law, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2004, says extended copyright protection covers movies that had copyright protection at the time the revised law took effect. Two companies filed a lawsuit to stop the sales of a cheap DVD of "Shane," a western classic. They argued that 50-year copyright protection applied to the movie on Jan. 1, 2004, and therefore the movie should be protected under the revised law. But the Supreme Court ruled that since the film's copyright had expired at the very end of 2003, its protection cannot be extended to 70 years. The top court also turned down the Cultural Affairs Agency's interpretation that the 70-year protection should apply to movies released in 1953.