The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) sparked a public uproar in February when it announced it will start demanding that private music schools pay copyright fees.
The nation's largest copyright management agency says that when teachers play a song on the piano in front of their students without permission, they are committing a copyright violation.
JASRAC drew fire again in May when media reports surfaced alleging the organization had demanded that Kyoto University pay a copyright fee for posting online a congratulatory address written by professor Juichi Yamagiwa that included a line from Bob Dylan's classic song "Blowin' in the Wind."