Pirated distributor was arrested followed a tip from the citizen
- 18Nov 2008
On November 19, Asahi Police Station, Osaka Prefecture, sent a 64-year man of no fix abode to the Osaka District Public Prosecutor’s Office on suspicion of violation of the Copyright Law. Police arrested the man on October 28 and seized many pirated DVDs.
He distributed pirated DVDs at 1,000 yen per disc. The seizures included titles such as “Wall-E” and “The X-Files: I want to believe” (not yet released in Japan), and “The Dark Knight” (theatrically released in Japan but not yet available on DVD). He distributed the pirated goods at a short-term rental shop in a shopping mall at Asahi-ku, Osaka City.
The October 28 raid followed by a tip from the citizen and was a good example of quick collaboration between the public and the governmental agencies for eliminating pirated goods.
pageTopMan Arrested for Illegal Distribution Of Not-Yet-Released Movie via Winny File-Sharing Network
- 18Sep 2008
On September 18, officers from the High-Tech Crime Control Center of Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters arrested a 33-year Sendai man on suspicion of violation of Japan's Copyright Law. The suspect, charged with infringement of the rights of public transmission, had distributed the movie Wanted, not yet released in Japan, via the Internet using "Winny" file-sharing software. Wanted is due to be released in Japan on September 20.
The arrest was the first in Japan of a suspect who had illegally distributed an unreleased movie via the Internet, and if convicted, the suspect faces up to 10 years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to 10 million yen.
At the beginning of July, the Japan and International Motion Picture Copyright Association (JIMCA) identified the illegal distribution of the movie file and submitted a criminal complaint to the Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters. This year, JIMCA has identified more than 30 movie files that have been uploaded to the Winny network prior to their Japan release dates.
The suspect admitted to police that he had uploaded the file, which is subtitled in Japanese. Police believe the source of the file is a camcording in a theater in the U.S. and that the suspect added the subtitles. The suspect is believed to have been extremely active in subtitling foreign films and uploading them to the Internet via Winny.
The 'Winny' peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing system came to prominence in Japan in November 2003 when police arrested two Winny users for illegally distributing game software and a movie. Both suspects pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for three years.
In May 2004 police arrested the developer of the Winny system, Isamu Kaneko, and charged him with abetting the infringement of Japan's Copyright Law. On December 13, 2006, Kaneko was found guilty of aiding and abetting the infringement of Japan's Copyright Law by the Kyoto District Court and fined 1.5 million yen
Rather than serving files from a single location, the system distributes cached copies of user-provided files around the 'Winny' network to other users' computers, facilitating faster downloads of popular titles. Thus, all users of the 'Winny' system open their computers up to others' files, possibly contributing to copyright infringement.
"Copy Ten" Legislation … What Does It Mean?
- 01Aug 2008
On July 4, 2008, the Education, Science and Technology Ministry and
the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry eased restrictions on copying digital TV programs,
permitting consumers to make as many as ten copies of a digital television broadcast
(the "dubbing 10" legislation does not apply to entertainment contained on DVDs and CDs).
The so-called dubbing-10 system supplanted previous copying rules that permitted only one
copy to be made of a recording, and is aimed at offering consumers more ways to enjoy
digital content by adding a copy-control signal to the digital broadcast in order to
protect the rights of the owners, manufacturing companies, and broadcasters without degrading
the quality or quantity of the programs, thus helping to ensure the excellence of future broadcasts.
The 10 copy limit was decided on by the Information and Communications Council (ICC),
an advisory body to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, with the rationale:
"It is assumed that the average household consists of three individuals, each of whom may
have up to three digital devices. Accordingly, the likely number of legitimate copies
required would be nine (3 devices 3 people), to which one physical transfer was added."
The dubbing-10 legislation restricts the number of copies that can be made because recordings
of digital broadcasts can be duplicated ad infinitum without any significant loss of quality.
Accordingly, it was considered that limits should be imposed so that broadcast programs can
only be dubbed for personal use (for private viewing).
Dubbing up to 10 times (i.e. nine copies and one transfer) for personal use only is allowed,
but the sale or release onto the Internet without the permission of the copyright holder of
a program recorded for personal use would constitute a copyright infringement.
University Students Share Views on Copyright
- 18Jul 2008
Earlier this year, JIMCA produced a short video documenting the views about intellectual
property rights of Japanese university students. In a series of interviews with students
from three universities in Tokyo, JIMCA researchers posed questions such as "Are movies
and music 'property'?"; "Is it okay to download without paying?"; "Is it okay to share
your movie and music files?"; and "Does file sharing help or hurt performers?".
The video showcased the different points of view that students bring to a discussion
about intellectual property rights, and is being used by JIMCA in seminars at universities
throughout Japan as a starting point for discussions about intellectual property rights.
Government Announces "Intellectual Property Promotion Plan 2008"
- 23Jun 2008
On June 18, the IPPH (Intellectual Property Policy Headquarters), under the direction of
Prime Minister Fukuda, announced the "Intellectual Property Promotion Plan 2008".
The plan's objectives are:
1. Strengthen international competitiveness in intellectual property-related fields;
2. Foster development of intellectual property industries in international markets; and
3. Progress toward common global and pan-Asia objectives on intellectual property-related issues.
In re counterfeiting and pirated goods, the IPPH will speed up efforts to ratify the provisionally
named "Anti-Counterfeiting Goods Treaty".
Pirate Retail & Internet Operation Shut Down in Osaka
- 28May 2008
On May 27, following an investigation by JIMCA, officers from the Environment and Consumer
Protection Division of the Aichi Prefectural Police Headquarters, Nishio Police Station and
Gamagori Police Station arrested the owner of a DVD shop, and another man living in Osaka
City, on suspicion of violation of the copyright law.
Police seized 21 optical disc burners, computer equipment, and thousands of pirated and
pornographic DVD movies. Among the seizures, police found illegally camcorded versions of
movie titles. The suspects said that the source of these DVDs were purchases from street
vendors at the Nipponbashi-suji shopping mall in Osaka City.
On March 11, 2007, JIMCA discovered the suspects' illegal business, and issued a warning
within the framework of its TAP program. The suspects ignored the warning, and changed
their business model in an effort to evade detection and prosecution, shifting to sales
via Internet auction site and mobile phone auction site and sending lists of offered
titles to customers via e-mail.
This year, however, they expanded their business and opened a DVD shop offering pirated
titles in Osaka City and advertised the business monthly in five sports newspapers.
On being questioned by police, they confessed that they had earned around 1.5 million
yen (US$14,225) per month.
Japanese Content Broadcasters Host China Online Video Piracy Seminar
- 14May 2008
On May 13, a coalition of 13 Japanese commercial TV broadcasters hosted a "China Online
Video Piracy Seminar" in Tokyo, attracting around 150 attendees from television broadcast
and production companies, advertising agencies and MPA member companies.
At the event, aimed at developing an international approach to the problem of video
piracy in China that via the Internet is affecting the Japanese and other regional
markets, industry executives delivered presentations on the subjects of China
Internet legislation and regulation, and cooperative solutions against online video
piracy.
JIMCA's legal counsel emphasized that Japanese content owners and broadcasters have a
leading role to play in the interdiction of illegal piracy internationally through
their responses to the problem in Japan.
Filipino shop owner and three others arrested for piracy
- 10Apr 2008
On April 9, 22 police officers from Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters and
Nagareyama Police Station, accompanied by a JIMCA investigator, arrested a
43-year-old Japanese-Filipino shop owner and three other men on suspicion of
violation of the Copyright Law. The four were distributing pirated VHS tapes
of popular Hollywood movies.
In September 2007, police officers from Nagareyama Police Station observed the
illegal duplication of VHS tapes while visiting a food materials shop and
restaurant in Nagareyama City during a regular patrol. In the April 9 raid,
the officers seized 521 pirated VHS tapes, 93 VHS tape decks and one personal
computer.
Further investigations revealed that the master tapes had been sent by airmail
from the Philippines, and then duplicated in an apartment in Kawasaki City.
The tapes were sold to customers for 300 yen per tape to customers who placed
their orders via telephone.
Police Officer, Other Man Arrested in Landmark File-Sharing Case
- 25Mar 2008
On March 24, the Association of Copyright for Computer Software (ACCA) announced
that the Environment and Consumer Protection Division of the Fukuoka Prefectural
Police Headquarters and Tsukushino Police Station had filed cases against two men
with the Fukuoka prosecutor's office.
The men, one a police officer stationed at the Hyogo Prefectural Police Headquarters
and the other a Fukuoka-based businessman, were charged with violation of Rights
of Public Transmission statutes for having made digitalized map software transmittable
to the public via the Winny file-sharing software application in January.
The case represents a landmark prosecution in Japan because the men had not
deliberately uploaded content, as was the case in previous Winny prosecutions
When the accused downloaded content, due to the design of Winny, they ended
up unintentionally offering for upload the files stored in their computers'
memory cache . Winny users' computers are network "slaves" that upload
content according to network demand and regardless of user preferences,
downloaded content that is not cleared from the computer's memory cache
is "on offer" to other network users at all times.
If the prosecution is successful, all users in Japan of Winny or Share
or other file-sharing software applications may be considered to have
violated Rights of Public Transmission statutes if they do not clear
their computers' cache immediately following unauthorized downloads of
content.
Kobe Man Arrested for Illegal Manufacturing and Distribution of Pirated DVDs
- 13Mar 2008
On March 12, acting on a tip, officers from the Environment and Consumer Protection
Division of Hyogo Prefectural Police Headquarters and Suma Police Station arrested
a 48-year truck driver living in Kobe City on suspicion of violation of the Copyright
Law.
On January 29, police raided the man's residence and seized more than 800 pirated
DVDs, as well as computers, scanners and printers.
The man admitted to police duplicating pirated DVDs after downloading movies using
file-sharing software or renting legitimate DVDs at video rental shop, between the
latter part of September 2007 and January 2008. He distributed these pirated DVDs
via word of mouth at a sale price of around 1,000 yen (US$10) per disc.
Police Official Provides IPR Update at Asia Intellectual Property Symposium
- 08Mar 2008
On March 7, the 10th Anti-Counterfeiting Association's Asia Intellectual
Property Symposium 2008 was held at the Nikkei Hall in Tokyo. The theme
this year was "Asia on Spotlight - Growth of Intellectual Property" and
the Hall was filled almost to capacity.
Mr. Hisamitsu Arai, former Secretary General, Intellectual Property Policy
Headquarters Secretariat, delivered the keynote speech,
and then Mr. Takashi Otsuka, Administrator, Intellectual Property Protection,
Community Safety Bureau, National Police Agency, provided an update on
IP-related criminal cases. Mr. Otsuka reported that 441 IP-related cases
were filed and 756 individuals were arrested in 2007. He noted that 31
percent of the cases involved violations of the Copyright Law, while 62
percent involved violations of the Trade Mark Law.
Mr. Otsuka added that counterfeit goods remain a significant problem in
Asia, with China-, Hong Kong- and Korea-origin goods accounting for 95
percent of counterfeit goods seized in Japan. He stressed that China in
particular is viewed as especially problematic in terms of its apparent
inability to control the counterfeiting/pirating of legitimate goods,
as well as their export to other countries, including Japan.
Additionally, Mr. Otsuka cited several cases that JIMCA handled last year:
yakuza-controlled street vendors in Osaka, and bootleg distribution
operations run by and catering to Japanese-Brazilians in Japan.
He spoke out in favor of stronger deterrent sentencing, and praised
the Osaka District Court for handing down record sentences in the
street vendor case. [In that case, the main defendant was handed a
sentence of 20 months in prison without parole and a fine of 3.8
million yen (US$38,044). The defendant was also ordered to pay a
supplementary fine of 34,191,200 yen (US$341,942) under the Organized
Crime Control Law.] Mr. Otsuka concluded by saying that National
Police Agency will pursue IPR-related cases using not only the Copyright
Law but also other applicable laws.
Man arrested on distribution of pirated DVDs disguising as secondhand goods
- 22Jan 2008
On January 22, Kashihara Police Station arrested a 21-year old man living in Tama-ku,
Kawasaki City on suspicion of fraud and violation of the Copyright Law. With police,
he copied "LOST Season 1" on DVD-Rs without authorization of the copyright holder
at the end of August, 2007, and exhibited it on Net auction site disguising bidders
as secondhand goods.
He sold it to a woman living in Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture who deposited 20,000
yen to his bank account. Also, he distributed another pirated DVD-R to another woman
at the beginning of 2007.
Recently, exhibitions of pirated goods have been increasing under the guise of legal
secondhand DVDs on auction sites. If you wonder it is cheaper, please take care!