Japan makes downloading pirated content a prison-worthy offense
 

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Basically, Japan's decided that knowingly possessing pirated material carries a penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000, wheras uploading pirated material can carry the extremely stiff sentence of up to ten years in prison.

Jesus Christ Japan take it easy, I know pirating stuff is bad but there's no need to throw people in jail for a decade over it.

I doubt this law will be regularly enforced. The West has a hard time catching pirates, and have pretty much failed to prove that they actually pirated, and Japanese P2P is harder to track that Torrents. My bet is that this is a feel good law and only a few people will actually manage to suffer because of it. Also, I think Japan is dependent on confessions and a lot of law enforcement are unskilled at actually proving their case, so its hard to see lots of people being punished by this.

That said. There should never be punishment for personal use piracy, and fighting piracy with legislation is something for companies that refuse to innovate their dinosaur business models and actually compete. Copyright needs significant reform for the age of the internet, laws like this aren't helping.

Yeah, Japan has a lot of crazy moral laws that really make no sense to me. For example, you can get serious prison time in Japan for smoking weed. How lame is that?

One reason I would never go there.

Hey, let's put it this way.

After Ishihara's bill that is supposed to "protect the children of Japan from questionable content in media", members of Tokyo's Government voiced their approval of the Yosuga no Sora anime series.

Same goes here. Laws are often used as decoration rather than as an implementing set of laws.

woah?! Glad we got Otakus in the Japanese government..:heh:

I know the law probably won't amount to much, I just wanted to see some rage. :cool:

The law strictly affects stuff in Japan, it seems. Therefore, either the government wins out and begin arresting downloaders en masse, or else backlash against the law forces the government to retract it.

Hey, 5 years in prison is better than in some Asian countries where you get hanged for it. :heh:

Exactly; keep in mind that, in Japan, prosecutors almost always only bring up cases when they have at least a 99% chance of winning.

Just get a VPN if you are living and working in Japan....


Actually, if you are there anyway, you can just record your anime off the TV and no one would know

As for games/eroge....well enforcement doesn't seem as harsh for those but anyway they're more worth buying than hideously overpriced bluray volumes for anime..

Yes, Singapore is indeed a fascist, corporate, police state/hell-on-earth that seems more like a setting from an 80's action film than real place.

But seriously, five years in prison for the most victimless crime imaginable? That is absurd to me.

What if they gave people five years for drinking a beer?

Japanese mediagiants aren't any different anywhere else in the world
Their importance in the national economy (and electon donations) carry enough weight to make politicians
at least try to 'brake' the breaching of copyright laws

They never learn, do they?

If uploaders didn't stop even when there was already harsh penalties for them, what makes they think downloaders will?

Since driving a stolen car you got for free is also still a crime
should we legalize that too?

How do you steal a car you got for free?

Television shows are shown on television and VCRs and the like were made so you can record something to see later (especially handy if you can't be home or awake to see said program). Cable services even come with record features now.

But depending on the country, you've paid for the luxury of having a TV set, the right to view the channel that the show is broadcast on (USA) , the convenience to record (for digital, USA) and if you're very unlucky (USA), the show also. *USA is my point of reference for most stuff.*

By downloading that same program, you've bypassed a lot of charges. I said downloading because you still have to buy the license for using the BBC player. Even on US sites like hulu, you're paying for access and still take surveys. Amazon Prime users get streaming as part of their membership.

Same could be said about paying for an internet connection and a computer.

Well, here's a easier way to understand why this thing even exists...

http://cabalamat.wordpress.com/2012/...-the-internet/

Actually that's like saying that you have paid for the wires and plugs used to steal your neighbours electricity.

A lot of the internet connection here are the same bill as the televison services. And computers are not cheap. Plus today a televison and a monitor are the same thing. Only scale is different if you want a smaller TV for your computer.

Question: was the original purpose when you bought a computer the same as buying a TV: to watch shows broadcasted on cable or satelite?


While i am no saint myself (eventhough i do buy some things that i really like from japan), but people downloading any kind of media (music, games, shows on tv) does hurt the industry even if it's considered normal for many people these days.

Also from what i have read on a japanese blogs, this new law does bring up some new questions.
Like if it's a crime or not for watching something on youtube or nico nico douga, seeing that the content is technically downloaded on your computer.