[Zeroshots]

0.o looks like they've been cracking down on people uploading anime...

Japan's Copyright Law prohibits unauthorized uploaders but expressly allowed people to download for private use until this month. In June, the Japanese parliament passed an amendment that will make it illegal to knowingly download copyrighted material without authorization for the first time. The new law went into effect on January 1, 2010.

Kyodo News and other news sources report that Kyoto's High-Tech Crime Task Force has arrested a male suspect on Wednesday for allegedly uploading anime online, without the copyright holders' permission, using the Perfect Dark file-sharing software. Other people have been arrested for uploading anime online, but not for using Perfect Dark, a "next-generation" program which was intended to maintain its users' anonymity better than its predecessors. (The Perfect Dark file-sharing program has no relation to the Nintendo 64/Xbox Live Arcade game of the same name.)

According to the High-Tech Crime Task Force, the suspect uploaded the televised Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime in January. The suspect is accused of uploading over ten works in one day.

More info here>> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[gundestiny]

Ehhhh!? This might make things a tad more complicated... >.>"

[cri7ica1z]

Oh man, I hope this doesen't affect us foreigners lol s:

[Yayoi]

Hmm. That's interesting. So would the result be the same if they uploaded an anime to a server located off seas, if said anime was not itself licensed in Region 1?

In other words, would the copyright laws of Japan govern even though the physical location of the server was elsewhere? I know very little about Japanese civil procedure, but can I assume that the location of the "crime" dictates the charge?

[cri7ica1z]

Originally Posted by Yayoi

Hmm. That's interesting. So would the result be the same if they uploaded an anime to a server located off seas, if said anime was not itself licensed in Region 1?

In other words, would the copyright laws of Japan govern even though the physical location of the server was elsewhere? I know very little about Japanese civil procedure, but can I assume that the location of the "crime" dictates the charge?

I would assume so, almost everything is like that

[gundestiny]

There's always a loop hole...

[Yayoi]

Originally Posted by cri7ica1z

I would assume so, almost everything is like that

Well, I guess in copyright laws that may be the case. But sometimes where the crime itself is directly felt, as opposed to where the crime is committed, governs.

What I'm getting at is that in the US, there are exceptions to copyright laws based on 4 standards, under the umbrella of Fair Use. The exceptions are:

1. The purpose and the character of the use.
e.g. nonprofit educational purposes, criticism or parody
2. The nature of the original copyrighted work.
3. The amount of the original work used in the secondary work.
4. The economic impact of the use.

These exceptions are applied on a case by case basis, and I wonder if Japan also has these exceptions as well. If they did, then I believe that this guy can have a viable legal argument.

[Yayoi]

But then again, the Japanese legal system is so different from our own. I think they have a conviction rate of above 90% , hah! Plus I think you can be questioned for 36 hours without having the right to an attorney, so maybe he's just screwed.

[cri7ica1z]

What strikes me as the most astonishing is that they'd go to such lengths for a 20 minute episode of One Piece persay, tai hen desune.

[JohnNamikaze]

Japan is just doing this since they have been facing a tough economical recession for the past year, or the anime producer is running out of ideas so their taxing the shows.