日本Twitter转发案与侵犯著作权等罪的违法性阻却

Twitter Retweet Case and the Obstruction of Illegality in Crime of Copyright Infringement in Japan

Twitter转发案中各转发者的转发行为是否侵犯了向公众传播权、保护作品完整权及署名权,存在较大争议。东京地方法院、知识产权高等法院、日本最高法院对此案作出了不尽相同的判决,这一案件在日本引起了广泛而深入的讨论。日本著作权法上没有区分民事侵权与刑事犯罪,如何以现行著作权法的条文构造为前提,对民事侵权与刑事犯罪进行界分,充分发挥实质违法性阻却的作用,值得研究。就侵犯著作权等罪而言,能够从刑法上实质违法性的立场来限定处罚范围,这不同于有关“权利内容”的著作权法上个别规定的限定性和相对解释。通过同类行为的累积实现社会利益的观点能够重构目的手段框架,而根据这一框架分析,本案各转发行为的实质违法性被阻却。

In the Twitter retweet case,whether the retweeting actions of each participant infringed on the rights including the communicate to the public,the integrity of works,and claim authorship has been highly controversial.The Tokyo District Court,Intellectual Property High Court,and Supreme Court of Japan have issued differing judgments on this case,which has sparked widespread and in-depth discussion in Japan.Japanese copyright law does not distinguish between civil infringement and criminal offenses.Studying how to categorize civil infringements and criminal offenses under the existing articles of copyright law,and fully utilizing the concept of substantive illegality,is worthwhile.Regarding crimes of copyright infringement,it is possible to define the scope of punishment from a standpoint of substantive illegality in criminal law,distinct from the restrictive and relative interpretation of specific provisions regarding“contents of right”under copyright law.The viewpoint that accumulative similar actions can serve social interests allows for the reconstruction of a means-end framework,and according to this framework,the substantive illegality of the retweet actions in this case can be negated.