New Japanese Law Jails Illegal Downloaders for 2 Years

[btarunr]

Japan passed a new legislation that could imprison illegal downloaders for two years. The country is combating illegal downloads as its local entertainment industry struggles. Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAA's counterpart from across the Pacific) and its affiliates estimate Illegal downloads outnumbering legal downloads 10:1, with a 16% decline in legal downloads just last year.

The new law makes Japan the toughest state against piracy. Before it, Japanese laws, like most others', targeted uploaders of copyrighted content/software with up to 10 years in prison, and 10 million JPY (US $128,300) in fines. The new law allows the police to penalize mere downloaders with a 2-year jail term and 2 million JPY ($25,680) in fines.

Source: Torrent Freak

[trickson]

Sweet!

[Prima.Vera]

Bla bla bla. Just another useless stupid law. I want to see how they will accuse the thousands of torrent or DC users!

[KissSh0t]

It also includes watching content on youtube..

Good luck enforcing that.

[Perra]

Haha the justice system will have a meltdown if they go after illegal downloaders this way, will be fun to watch

[trickson]

Originally Posted by Perra

Haha the justice system will have a meltdown if they go after illegal downloaders this way, will be fun to watch

LOL. Meltdown! Kinda like there nuclear power plant!

[TheLostSwede]

From Wikipedia - Population: 127,817,277
So say 10% of those people watch something illegal from the internet...
that's nearly 13 million people that then has to be taken to court...
I think there will be riots in Japan if that really happens

[entropy13]

As another website already said about the law, it is mostly focused on the music and movie industries (and animation industry; but not animation aired on TV, only DVD/BD copies). Manga and software are curiously absent, probably because they didn't give sufficient...contributions.

[XNine]

Originally Posted by trickson

LOL. Meltdown! Kinda like there nuclear power plant!

ZINGGGGGGG!

If there's one country that's even more insane about entertainment and celebrities than the USA, it's Japan. Entertainment is probably their biggest industry.

I don't know how they plan on enforcing this. As it stands, there isn't enough Jail room for even 1% of the people who do pirate entertainment over there. This might curb a whole .0001% of people who do it, but there's no way, in my opinion, they could legitimately enforce this.

[DaC]

it's because probably only 10% of the music production they sell in Japan is worth it buying.... "=]
Who has never downloaded music, films or games and ended up even never seeing, played or doesn't cared at all to keep after a couple of minutes ?

If it's to apply old laws to new ways.... let's make a law that you can return a software, game, music downloaded or not, for a full refund if you didn't liked it or think it's "broke" after a couple of days....

[TheMailMan78]

They don't have to bust everyone. Just arrest enough to scare the hell out of the law breakers in Japan. Get caught downloading stuff? Risk two years in jail. You gonna take that bet living in Japan? I think not.

[mtosev]

too long. a fine would be enough. let's lock up real criminals and not some random person that just downloads something

[Covert_Death]

glad i don't live in japan, i may have just downloaded ansys workbench 14....

how bout we focus on locking up the rapist and murderers and people who actually TAKE stuff from people... downloading is just taking a COPY of something, at the end of the day yes its a missed sale but they don't less of anything than they did at the beginning of the day.

i think law enforcement has lost its focus... all they care about is protecting businesses now, what happened to protecting the people?

[wickerman]

The American prison system is nearly at its breaking point having the highest incarceration rate (730 prisoners per 100,000 population) on the planet, Japan is ranked 193rd on the list. If Japan truly tries to enforce these laws to the letter, I think they will climb that list quite rapidly and probably knock us off our spot. In a digital age, when people can even directly torrent files to their Android or iOS powered phone or tablet criminalizing downloads is going to be a HUGE undertaking.

Wouldn't the smartest move be not to target the downloaders, but to get more aggressive with the torrent sites? Go after the scene groups that release the content, and take out as many of the big server farms as you can? Or better yet target the advertisers who make running a torrent site so profitable. Tell google to stop adsense popping up on sites hosting torrents, and to de-list sites hosting illegal content quicker than they do...if they do it at all because right now you can still find all the major names that still existed years ago.

Waging war on downloaders is a pretty bad idea because its just going to lead down a very bad path that strips rights away from the rest of us, gives ISPs the right to spy on us, turns some poor souls with weak or unprotected networks into criminals...or worse introduces even more insane DRM type schemes than we already contend with on custom HTPC systems that record or stream HDTV.

I hate cable TV, I can't stand trying to watch it anymore...it is so full of shitty ads and it is even invading the shows themselves. When the hell did it become OK for them to start blasting giant banners across the bottom third of a show, advertising some other show? Why does the network logo have to be the size of the faces of the characters on the screen? Why do they have to have flashing, animated, scrolling logos and banners and characters running around on the screen advertising things while I am trying to watch a show! This is why I canceled my service in favor of netflix, amazon prime, and legally downloading programs through services like itunes, amazon, or on the show's website. And I think this is why most people would rather just illegally download shows instead of finding the legal avenue. Content providers and advertisers have ruined television...

[hardcore_gamer]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

They don't have to bust everyone. Just arrest enough to scare the hell out of the law breakers in Japan. Get caught downloading stuff? Risk two years in jail. You gonna take that bet living in Japan? I think not.

Yep. That's the plan: create fear

[xaira]

all they have to do is catch 1 and make an example out of him, you act like they really plan to prosecute all those people, laws are meant to be a deterrant, you catch a few, and the rest will conform, there will still be a few who take the chance, but not nearly as much as before

[BUCK NASTY]

And the wireless hacking rate in Japan skyrockets overnight. Think of all the innocent peeps that will be charged...

[3870x2]

God forbid the millionaires entertainment industry have a problem budgetting themselves.

Reminds me of how the U.S. Congress compains that $175,000 isn't enough for them and their families to live off of, so they get extra incentives.

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by 3870x2

God forbid the millionaires entertainment industry have a problem budgetting themselves..

What does that have to do with anything? They are rich? So what? Doesn't give you the right to download something you didn't pay for. FYI you are not entitled to anything.

[3870x2]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

What does that have to do with anything? They are rich? So what? Doesn't give you the right to download something you didn't pay for. FYI people are not entitled to anything.

They act like the entertainment industry is suffering, and is why they are pushing the law.

BTW fixed, you made a terrible mistake in your post.

EDIT: I should also state that I lose nearly $1000 a month in taxes out of my hard earned check. That being said, I am entitled to a government that looks after me.

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by 3870x2

They act like the entertainment industry is suffering, and is why they are pushing the law.

When someone takes a product that's for sale, uses it and doesn't pay for it that causes pain to the producer. Doesn't matter how rich or poor. Their work is being taken advantage of. This law is to help curb jerks from taking advantage of other peoples work. End of story.

This is a good and just law. I hope to see it in the US soon.

Originally Posted by 3870x2

EDIT: I should also state that I lose nearly $1000 a month in taxes out of my hard earned check. That being said, I am entitled to a government that looks after me.

Glad to see you support slavery.

[NC37]

Originally Posted by BUCK NASTY

And the wireless hacking rate in Japan skyrockets overnight. Think of all the innocent peeps that will be charged...

They have better internet options there and wireless services but yeah...the ones that really want to will find a way around it.

Japan seems to deal with DRM crap a lot easier than the rest of the world. Elsewhere it only spurs pirates on, but there I've literally seen the practice demonized by their media. Was a case last year that I caught reported which made news on some of our sites here. Real simple. Was a kid involved too and he was practically destroyed by the media attention.

Then we wonder why Sony and some of these companies don't wake up and get smart with DRM that isn't working. Its because they are getting away with it there with media + government approval.

Oh well, the worse it gets the more their people will finally cry out about it. Will just take them longer.

[3870x2]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

Glad to see you support slavery.

¿

I will agree with the law to a certain extent. As you have already stated, it is mostly to scare the rest of the population into conforming.

When I was a kid, I used to download illegally, but now amazon provides such a good service, that I have never looked back.

Not everyone is middle class, and sometimes I tend to sympathize with the poorer population more than the rich.

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by 3870x2

¿

I will agree with the law to a certain extent. As you have already stated, it is mostly to scare the rest of the population into conforming.

When I was a kid, I used to download illegally, but now amazon provides such a good service, that I have never looked back.

Not everyone is middle class, and sometimes I tend to sympathize with the poorer population more than the rich.

I grew up poor. Very poor. No reason to be poor. If you can't make it then where the hell do you expect to, and when does it become an individuals responsibility and not everyones problem? Not everyone can be an astronaut. Someones gotta clean toilets. Government handouts are slavery.

[RejZoR]

It sucks the most when 3/4 of all services say "Your country isn't supported". If they can't supply legal service to us then fuck them. It's not my problem if they can't supply the goods so they have NO right to prosecute me.