5 ms·

no source on this, but the story I heard is that Japan recently passed a law which makes sharing screenshots to be equatable to piracy. This prompts Studio Ghi

no source on this, but the story I heard is that Japan recently passed a law which makes sharing screenshots to be equatable to piracy. This prompts Studio Ghibli to publicly release many screenshots under a "do whatever you want" license so people can continue discussing the films. edit: possibly related: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/27/national/japan-limits-scope-illegal-downloading-copyrighted-work/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/27/national/japan-...

bigdict 6y ago
Wouldn't it be up to the studio to initiate such lawsuits anyway?
- fireattack 6y ago
  This was/is exactly another shitstorm in Japan years ago (I didn't remember if it made into copyright law already or not) as part of the effort for joining TPP: ".. to allow for the prosecution of copyright infringement without the need for a formal complaint from the original creator or rightsholder". [1] [1] https://www.icmp-ciem.org/news/japan-government-tackle-copyright-infringement https://www.icmp-ciem.org/news/japan-government-tackle-copyr... Japanese Wikipedia article has more info: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E8%91%97%E4%BD%9C%E6%A8%A9%E6%B3%95%E3%81%AB%E3%81%8A%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B%E9%9D%9E%E8%A6%AA%E5%91%8A%E7%BD%AA%E5%8C%96 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E8... )
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
Larrikin 6y ago
My information may be slightly outdated since I don't live there anymore, but when I did the research before moving to Japan a few years back I found that Japan had recently passed some of the strictest digital piracy laws in the world but had never actually prosecuted anyone for it.
- howlgarnish 6y ago
  Not so -- Japan has criminal penalties for piracy and has arrested numerous people for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing_in_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing_in_Japan Oddly, Wikipedia is less clear on if anybody has been convicted, but being arrested is already sufficiently career-destroying (weeks in jail for interrogation etc).
  - rirarobo 6y ago
    Anecdotally, I have a friend who's coworker was arrested all of the sudden one day, allegedly for using streaming services. Like you said, I'm not sure about the outcome of such arrests, whether result in convictions or not, but I also get the general impression that repercussions are severe regardless. The public messaging also seems to be more serious than what I typically see in the US. For example, I feel like anti-piracy announcements play more consistently in Japanese movie theaters, and the ads specifically highlight fine amounts, maximum sentences, and ask viewers to report suspicious behavior of others (all delivered with cute mascots). In comparison, I don't notice anti-piracy campaigns that much in U.S. theaters these days, and the ones I remember seemed to reinforce the message that piracy is a crime more generally rather than focusing on specifics of potential punishments, e.g. "You wouldn't steal a car" ads. ISPs also have a reputation of being very cooperative with Japanese authorities, and since violations are serious criminal offenses, I get the feeling from friends that they consider it is a very serious risk. This is from my quite limited experience though, so I would be very curious to see stats on arrests, convictions, and sentencing. The wiki page you linked is definitely missing a lot of information.
    - fomine3 6y ago
      I live in Japan and I never heard who arrested by just only watching (not uploading) streaming services. Could you expand? (IANAL) In Japan, Streaming(watching) paid content is explicitly specified as legal meanwhile downloading is illegal. (Technically not different but this is law). Yes public messaging on theater/TV is really annoying. > ISPs also have a reputation of being very cooperative with Japanese authorities I don't know. They mush provide personal info for IP address if they orderd from police with writ, but I don't know other case to coop to arresting (like censoring). AFAIK, currently no one is arrested by just downloading a content (even illegal), but who use P2P that also uploading is arrested well.

bigdict 6y ago

Wouldn't it be up to the studio to initiate such lawsuits anyway?

fireattack 6y ago
This was/is exactly another shitstorm in Japan years ago (I didn't remember if it made into copyright law already or not) as part of the effort for joining TPP: ".. to allow for the prosecution of copyright infringement without the need for a formal complaint from the original creator or rightsholder". [1] [1] https://www.icmp-ciem.org/news/japan-government-tackle-copyright-infringement https://www.icmp-ciem.org/news/japan-government-tackle-copyr... Japanese Wikipedia article has more info: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E8%91%97%E4%BD%9C%E6%A8%A9%E6%B3%95%E3%81%AB%E3%81%8A%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B%E9%9D%9E%E8%A6%AA%E5%91%8A%E7%BD%AA%E5%8C%96 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E8... )
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

Larrikin 6y ago

My information may be slightly outdated since I don't live there anymore, but when I did the research before moving to Japan a few years back I found that Japan had recently passed some of the strictest digital piracy laws in the world but had never actually prosecuted anyone for it.

howlgarnish 6y ago
Not so -- Japan has criminal penalties for piracy and has arrested numerous people for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing_in_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing_in_Japan Oddly, Wikipedia is less clear on if anybody has been convicted, but being arrested is already sufficiently career-destroying (weeks in jail for interrogation etc).
- rirarobo 6y ago
  Anecdotally, I have a friend who's coworker was arrested all of the sudden one day, allegedly for using streaming services. Like you said, I'm not sure about the outcome of such arrests, whether result in convictions or not, but I also get the general impression that repercussions are severe regardless. The public messaging also seems to be more serious than what I typically see in the US. For example, I feel like anti-piracy announcements play more consistently in Japanese movie theaters, and the ads specifically highlight fine amounts, maximum sentences, and ask viewers to report suspicious behavior of others (all delivered with cute mascots). In comparison, I don't notice anti-piracy campaigns that much in U.S. theaters these days, and the ones I remember seemed to reinforce the message that piracy is a crime more generally rather than focusing on specifics of potential punishments, e.g. "You wouldn't steal a car" ads. ISPs also have a reputation of being very cooperative with Japanese authorities, and since violations are serious criminal offenses, I get the feeling from friends that they consider it is a very serious risk. This is from my quite limited experience though, so I would be very curious to see stats on arrests, convictions, and sentencing. The wiki page you linked is definitely missing a lot of information.
  - fomine3 6y ago
    I live in Japan and I never heard who arrested by just only watching (not uploading) streaming services. Could you expand? (IANAL) In Japan, Streaming(watching) paid content is explicitly specified as legal meanwhile downloading is illegal. (Technically not different but this is law). Yes public messaging on theater/TV is really annoying. > ISPs also have a reputation of being very cooperative with Japanese authorities I don't know. They mush provide personal info for IP address if they orderd from police with writ, but I don't know other case to coop to arresting (like censoring). AFAIK, currently no one is arrested by just downloading a content (even illegal), but who use P2P that also uploading is arrested well.