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・Japanese police arrested wholesaler of pirated DVDs to Korean convenience shops
・Bill amending copyright law passed by Diet
・The 5th Nipponbashi Street Festa |
Japanese police arrested wholesaler of pirated DVDs to Korean convenience shops
On August 26, 2009, police officers from Isezaki Police Station, Kanagawa Prefecture, raided a video distribution shop, "GOMU VIDEO", and its management company, "G.T.I. Co. Ltd.", in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, and arrested two individuals including the shop owner on suspicion of violation of the copyright law. The shop distributed pirated DVD-Rs illegally copied many popular Hollywood movies, such as "X-Men Origin: Wolverine" of 20th Century Fox and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" of Paramount. Also, police seized 790 pirated DVDs, 21 duplicators, 4 PCs and others.
With police, "GOMU VIDEO" wholesaled pirated DVD-Rs of movies to Korean convenience & food shops, "SEVEN" in Yokohama City, and "SEOUL SHOKUHIN" in Yamato City and "MODE LINE" in Kawasaki City. These shops were raided and the owners were arrested prior to the raid on "GOMU VIDEO": "SEVEN" was on 2008 February; "SEOUL SHOKUHIN on 2008 November; "MODE LINE" was on 2009 May.
"GOMU VIDEO" wholesaled pirated DVD-Rs to more than 50 shops including these 3 shops and earned about 20,000 yen per month from each shop. Most of the source videos were non-releasing titles in Japan at the time of duplication. The case has been under investigation.
（August 28,2009）
Page TopJapanese Police arrest man for illegal online distribution of movies
On Monday, August 17, officers from the Saitama Prefectural Police Headquarters and Kawagoe Police Station, Saitama Prefecture, assisted by investigators from the Japan and International Motion Picture Copyright Association (JIMCA), raided and arrested Takayuki Hamaura, a 28 year-old unemployed man at his residence in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, on suspicion of infringement of the right of public transmission under the Copyright Law.
The suspect, well known on 2ch.net, the most popular bulletin board in Japan, is believed to have used the online screen alias “GodBird” on Share, a file sharing program similar to Winny. Using his home computer, he uploaded movies onto Share, some of which were camcorded versions. The police are investigating the source of Hamaura's illegal copies.
The illegal movie files include Motion Picture Association (MPA) member companies’ titles “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, which is playing in cinemas now, “Watchmen”, “Terminator Salvation” and "Angels & Demons".
The suspect is believed to have distributed more than 260 movie, music and animated film titles in the past 9 months. If convicted under the Copyright Act, he faces up to 10 years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to US$105,481 (JPY10 million yen).
（August 19,2009）
Bill amending copyright law passed by Diet
On June 11, the "Bill for amending part of the Copyright Law" was passed by the Diet. The legislation will be enacted from January 1, 2010. The amendment stipulates no penalty for violation of the law, but it is expected that the clarification of the act's illegality will provide good deterrent effect.
At the moment, unauthorized reproductions of copyrighted materials are illegal under Article 23 (1), Copyright Law, ("Rights of public transmission" or "Rights of making transmittable"), unless such reproduction is made for personal use.
JIMCA has strongly appealed for the amendment of Article 30 since its enactment in 1986. After 2002, copyright infringements via the Internet have been significant and we have strengthened the cooperation with EIREN and the local film industry to lobby for the amendment. Also, MPAA headquarters has supported our effort through frequent visits to Japan by senior executives: Mr. A. Robert Pisano, President & COO, In March 2006 and October 2007; Mr. Dan Glickman, Chairman & CEO, in October 2006.
（June 12,2009）
Far apart two Prefectural Police Headquarters succeeded in joint operation
On May 11, officers from Osaka Prefectural Police Headquarters, Yao Police Station (Osaka Prefecture), Hokkaido Prefectural Police Headquarters and Sapporo Chuo Police Station raided the office of an online shop management company and other two places in Yao City, Osaka Prefecture, and arrested the two business owners, one of whom has been identified as a former active member of an organized criminal gang (Boryokudan). Police also investigated five additional employees.
The business owners opened an online shop named "Gekiyasu no Dendo SHOP DVD" on the Web and distributed pirated DVDs imported from China. The contents of the pirated goods were popular MPA member companies American TV drama series, Japanese TV drama series and other titles.
At the time of the raid, the suspects had operated the shop for two years and earned about 2 million yen per month by selling more than 100 pirated DVDs. Police seized more than 350 DVD box sets mainly infringing MPA member companies' TV drama series. During the raid, cardboard boxes were delivered to the office containing around 40 box sets of pirated DVDs infringing "Lost Season 4", "Ally McBeal" and others. Police seized nine PCs, a PC server, bankbooks and other items.
In October 2007, JIMCA identified the suspects' illegal business on the Yahoo auction site and twice sent warnings, via the auction site and telephone. On receipt of the warnings, the suspects immediately stopped their illegal exhibitions on Yahoo, but continued distribution via their online shop, "Gekiyasu no Dendo SHOP DVD".
JIMCA then requested cooperation from Osaka Prefectural Police Headquarters and Yao Police Station, and provided support to them in the form of evidence collection and examination of seized goods. During the investigation by Osaka Prefectural Police Headquarters, it turned out that the suspects were distributing pirated goods via another Net auction site, "Rakuten Auction", and JIMCA requested Rakuten to delete the infringing goods' listings and disclose the distributor's information according to the agreement between Rakuten and JIMCA.
Most of the pirated goods were directly shipped from China via international mail. This is the first case of a raid by police related such imported pirated goods.
While the Osaka Prefectural Police Headquarters launched its investigation at JIMCA's request, while Hokkaido Prefectural Police Headquarters launched its own investigation following complaints by local TV stations.
JIMCA has filed criminal complaints in relation to the infringement of FOX's "Prison Break" and "X-Men", and Walt Disney's "Lost". The URL of the site: http://shop-dvd.jp/
（May 12,2009）
The 5th Nipponbashi Street Festa
On March 20, the 5th Nipponbashi Street Festa was conducted at Naniwa-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture. The Festa is to enlighten the public not to purchase pirated goods and the sponsors are Nipponbashi-suji Shopping Street Promotion Union, Den-den Town Association and Osaka City. The number of attendees was larger than the previous year as about 200,000: about 166,000 in 2008. They were interested in the exhibitions comparing legitimate and pirated goods.
JIMCA set up show cases to exhibit legitimate and pirated DVDs or others and explained attendees how to identify pirated goods from legitimate ones. Also, we appealed them not to purchase pirated goods and distributed about 300 leaflets, "Illegal file-sharing: the risks aren't worth it."
（March 23,2009）
Bill of amendment of Article 30, Copyright Law passed the Cabinet
On March 10, the Cabinet meeting decided to amend the Article 30, Copyright Law, to criminalize downloading of music or movies illegally distributed on the Internet without authorizations of right holders. The bill also includes a regulation on legalization of caches to server for searching services. The bill will be submitted to the current Diet aiming for an enactment in 2010.
For illegal contents such as mobile phone melody, under the current copyright law, distribution by operators or individuals on the Internet is prohibited but no restriction on downloadings. Downloaders of such contents will be subject of regulation for control the distribution of illegal contents on the Internet. But when user download such contents knowing its illegalities, no penalties haven't been ruled.
It's now illegal to reproduce copyrighted works without authorization of copyright holders except private use under the current copyright law and operators who provide search service generally set up their servers in other countries. For promoting the developments of various services in Japan, the amendment will make it clear that caches in server are not illegal.
（March 11,2009）
Man raided related to illegal website
On February 18, Nishio Police Station, Aichi Prefecture, raided a residence of a 40-year old man living in Katsushika-ku, Tokyo, on suspicion of the copyright law violation. Police seized a set of PC and others.
With police, the man launched a web site, "Tokyo Divdyland" http://harrywood.jmj.at/, and allowed users of the site to download various number of images of DVD surfaces and DVD jackets. He illegally reproduced these images without authorizations of right holders and stored them in the server of his computer. He also received request of images from the users.
For the site, MPA member companies also received information. The case has been under investigation.
（Feburary 20,2009）
Illegal exhibitor on mobile auction site arrested
On February 16, 2009, officers from Tama Police Station, Kanagawa Prefecture, raided on the residence of a 48-year man living in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, on suspicion of distributing pirated DVDs.
JIMCA's net patrol identified illegal exhibition on "WANTED auction" on the internet on July 14, 2008, and started collection evidence soon. The man continued to conduct pirated distribution by changing his IDs several times on the auction site. Also, Tama Police Station identified the location of the man and requested JIMCA to cooperate the investigation.
With police, the man had no fixed occupation and rented movie DVDs to make masters and reproduce pirated goods about two years ago for distributing them on net auction site. He copied illegal discs with requests from customers and earned around 100,000 yen per month.
Police seized around 8,000 pirated DVDs including more than 1,000 titles of western movies such as "JUMPER" (20th Century Fox), "CLOVERFIELD" (Paramount), "KNOCKED UP" (Universal) and "HANCOCK" (Columbia). Also, police seized 3 personal computers with disc burners. He has been under the surveillance by police. When a series of examinations will be completed, police will arrest the man.
（Feburary 18,2009）
JIMCA cooperated with police on illegal distribution on mobile auction site
In November 2008, JIMCA received requirement of cooperation on a case from Cyber-crime Control Office, Saitama Prefectural Police Headquarters. Police had investigated on pirated exhibitions on mobile auction site, "Super Girls Auction & Boys Auction" and collected evidences, one of which was a MPA member's title, "ENCHANTED."
The site had originally exhibited various pirated brand goods and then pirated movies and music since last October. Police raided on the residence of one of the exhibitors, a man living in Amagasaki City, Miyata Daisuke, on February 2009 and seized more than 100 pirated DVD-Rs including 2 Western movies.
JIMCA has filed a criminal complaint against Miyata Daisuke on February 6, 2009. JIMCA's investigators predict that in the wake of global financial crisis, this kind of crimes could increase this year because of easily gaining profit, particularly MPA members' titles. We'll reinforce surveillance on the internet and mobile sites with the cooperation of police.
（Feburary 9,2009）
Winny Software Developer Pleads Not Guilty Again At Appeals Court OSAKA
On January 19, a former University of Tokyo researcher pleaded not guilty Monday at the Osaka High Court to abetting copyright violation by his developing and publicizing of the Winny file-sharing software program.
Isamu Kaneko, 38, and public prosecutors have both appealed a sentence imposing a 1.5 million yen fine on the defendant by the Kyoto District Court in December 2006.
The district court found Kaneko, who publicized the software on his website in May 2002, guilty of assisting two Winny users who illegally made movies and other files available for download through peer-to-peer online file exchanges in September 2003 in violation of copyrights.
The case marks the first time in Japan that a developer of software has been charged and found guilty over unlawful acts by the software's users.
Kaneko's defense said Monday that distinguished technologies always involve the possibility of being abused and questioned if engineers should be punished when their technologies are misused.
People who developed automobiles are not punished for speeding by vehicles, the defense told the court.
Prosecutors are appealing as the district court rejected their demand for one year in prison for the defendant. They claim Kaneko developed the program intending to destroy the copyright system and encouraged unlawful copying of protected content.
In rejecting a custodial sentence, the court said Kaneko, who was arrested in May 2004, did not intend to bring about copyright violations. The two Winny users in the case were found guilty of violating the copyright law.
Winny software enables the transfer of files over the Internet, and a number of information leaks involving the file-sharing program, including defense secrets as well as investigative and medical information, have been reported.
（January 20,2009）
Man arrested on unauthorized distribution of Disney titles on the internet
On January 7, officers from Hyogo Prefectural Police Headquarters arrested a man living in Kobe City, on suspicion of violation of the copyright law. Also, police confirmed the deposits of about 16 million yen to his bank account from more than 3,300 customers.
With the Environment and Consumer Protection Division, the Hyogo Prefectural Police Headquarters, the man, Imori Hideo, illegally copied 13 titles on the total of 18 DVDs between July and October, 2008, to distribute them to 8 customers living in Hyogo, Osaka and Tokyo and received 15,000 yen.
He circumvented the copy guard on DVDs he rented at a rental video shop and stored the contents on hard disc of his PC to distribute them illegally on net auction with 500 - 1,200 yen per disc.
On February 2008, JIMCA identified the illegal distribution and sent him the warning letter but he neglected it. Then, 2 studios in the U.S.A. having the copyrights of the titles filed criminal complaint to the Hyogo Prefectural Police Headquarters.
（January 12,2009）
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