Studio Ghibli, the acclaimed Japanese animation film studio, known for many masterpieces, has announced to provide hundreds of images from their movies as free to download and use “within the scope of commonsense”.
That’s right. In one of the latest press releases posted on Studio Ghibli’s official website, it is mentioned that from this month (September 2020) onwards, they will start providing photos and scenes of those stunning Studio Ghibli works.
In fact, as of now, they have already uploaded as many 400 high-resolution images from eight films that include: Spirited Away (2001), Tales from Earthsea (2006), Ponyo (2008), The Secret World of Arrietty (2010), From Up on Poppy Hill (2011), The Wind Rises (2013), The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013), and When Marnie Was There (2014).
So, there are 50 images available for each of the above films. Also, we can expect that Studio Ghibli will add more photos for its other works in the coming days.
Nevertheless, this is a good move by the studio, as many online publishers tend to take screenshots of those scenes in the film and add those in their online movie reviews or other publishing content. It seems the latest move may have been influenced by the change in copyright law in Japan. The amended anti-online piracy law now bans all illicit downloading of manga, magazines, and academic texts.
However, by making all these images available to end-users, Studio Ghibli not only allows everyone to practice fair use in using their works but also keep the copyright law in mind concerning the original creators.
Studio Ghibli’s producer Toshio Suzuki mentioned “please use freely within the scope of commonsense”. This further means that you cannot use the materials in any inappropriate settings. Besides, as online publishers, we need to be mindful of what we’re getting into when we publish images and copyright materials from other creators. Even if these are free to download, Studio Ghibli can still take action on any incompatible use.
Meanwhile, here is the official site link for you to view or download the images and revisit the magical hand-drawn animated world created by some of the finest anime creators from Studio Ghibli, including the maestro Hayao Miyazaki.
Earlier this year, the studio has released as many as 21 of its films on the streaming platform Netflix in 190 countries.
Images source: Studio Ghibli
