Japanese Police Arrest 27 File-Sharers in Nationwide Show of Force

enigmax
February 28, 2013
201
japan
Print

Last year Japan introduced one of the toughest laws in the world for dealing with online piracy but with little visible action against file-sharers it was questioned whether the legislation would have teeth. That position has now dramatically switched, with police nationwide carrying out searches on 124 locations and arresting 27 people for online infringement. Those arrested face up to 10 years in jail.

Following complaints that the music industry was in peril from the actions of illegal file-sharers, in June 2012 the Japanese government approved an amendment to its Copyright Law that would see mere downloaders of illicit content face criminal penalties.

The new legislation, which kicked in October 1 2012, stated that those knowingly downloading copyright infringing material could face a two-year jail sentence or a fine of 2 million yen ($21,640). Existing legislation against uploaders of copyright content already provided for penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a 10 million yen ($108,202) fine.

The Japanese public hadn’t witnessed any large scale enforcement action since the law’s introduction nearly five months ago but all that changed a few days ago.

The National Police Agency’s Cybercrime Project and rightsholders including the Recording Industry Association of Japan have just revealed the results of an intensive three day anti-piracy crackdown.

The police say that they carried out raids on 124 locations in all 47 regions of Japan, to date arresting a total of 27 people for breaches of copyright law. The items being shared and/or downloaded unlawfully include movies, music, TV shows, games and business software.

The Recording Industry Association of Japan confirmed that at least two of the arrests related to their products. The first concerned a 41-year-old who had allegedly uploaded music using the file-sharing software ‘Share’ and the second involved a 42-year-old who allegedly uploaded a video clip using the same tool.

The MPA-affiliated Japan and International Motion Picture Copyright Association (JIMCA) say that a 40-year-old man was arrested February 19 for allegedly uploading copyrighted movies using the P2P software ‘Share’. An earlier raid netted the hardware pictured below.

In addition to the above, several other rights organizations were involved in reporting the remaining alleged infringers to the police. They are the Association of Copyright for Computer Software (ACCS), General Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPAJ), Japan Video Software Association (JVA), General Institute of Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

While this is the first large coordinated action since the new legislation passed October 1, Japanese police have also conducted smaller operations against alleged file-sharers. They include

• A man arrested for uploading English teaching materials (October 15)
• Three men arrested for uploading video games using WinMX (October 16)
• A man arrested for uploading word processing software to a cloud site (October 22)

Previous Post | Next Post

Follow @torrentfreak

derp

Well, looks like someone could use another nuke.
- Caspin
  
  That is so fucked up. Fucked up that americans dropped the bomb, and fucked up that you’d say that.
  - Namer
    
    they’ve been fucking the world for more than half a century atleast and you’re surprised by that comment?
    - Caspin
      
      Not surprised, I feel for the hundreds thousands of dead Japanese people. Another nuke is not funny.
    - massivefagot
      
      Boo fucking hoo for the dead people. Get the fuck over it. I bet your the type of guy who gets mad when someone says the N word and writes a 3 page letter to them explaining why its bad.
    - Ophelia Millais
      
      Your username really helps.
    - PiRat
      
      Those people supported a regime which slaughtered/tortured millions of Chinese, not saying they deserved it, but they had it coming.
      
      Maybe the original nuke led to them being this fucked up in the first place, passing laws which are retarded even by American standards.
    - Caspin
      
      I don’t agree with you that the English have it coming. That a retribution for all of the atrocities the English have imposed on the world makes them deserve to be nuked. I don’t agree that Britain needs another Underground bombing. How can you say such a thing?
    - Guest
      
      When did the Chinese == English.
      
      Please proof read your comments, people.
    - Caspin
      
      The second idiots like you wake up and realize that all people are equal and that talking about Japanese is talking about English or American or Mexican or African or Russian. Wake up, racist. It’s time to join the 21st century. Did you just come back to Earth from a previous life where you stood around hanging black people from trees? A lot has changed since then. I hope your parents and neighbors can fill you in.
    - PiRat
      
      I think the government did the bombing so technically we bombed ourselves.
    - Kamina
      
      In America thousands of black people were enslaved and killed and tortured even well into the 20th century. America should have been nuked, no?
    - PiRat
      
      They have it coming.
GoingPostal13

Wow, uploading a Micheal Jackson song in Japan gets you more jail time than killing him in the US?

How evil are these copyright infringers?
- nonamthanks
  
  Perhaps the better question is “how lenient is the US with murderers”. Framing the question is important.
  - Guest
    
    You probably advocate Draco’s methodology of punishments, don’t you? Y’know, the Ancient Grecian lawmaker who advised punishments like death for laziness or theft of an apple? When asked about the harshness of his penalties he only had this to say: “Yes, it’s a problem. If only I could think of a punishment worse than death for the more serious crimes.”
    
    On the other hand, if this is the way you think you might be assured to know that Draco died after he was smothered in clothes by his adoring fans. Sounds promising!
    - Max
      
      That’s wrong analogy! It is not because Draco died like this that any other with the same way of thinking would end the same way!
    - Guest
      
      Perhaps not, but one can dream.
  - GoingPostal13
    
    When did someone murder Michael Jackson?
    - Guest
      
      his doctor?..
    - Christopher Kidwell
      
      His doctor didn’t murder him. Jackson knew the risks of those medications the doctor was putting him on and accepted them.
      
      Yes, some of them were supposed to only be used in hospitals, but nothing is ever absolute in medicine.
  - Scary_Devil_Monastery
    
    “Perhaps the better question is “how lenient is the US with murderers”.”
    
    By which we tacitly understand that you think ten years in jail is suitable for making a copy of media for personal use.
    
    “Framing the question is important.”
    
    It is indeed. In any nation called not considered a “rogue state” by the western world, even a two year prison sentences are usually called for only where serious crimes are considered. Such as assault, robbery, and similar cases where you can point to actual harm having been done.
    
    However, we are discussing ten years. In order to merit that penalty in the US, even in some more draconian states you need to invoke “voluntary manslaughter”.
    
    I.e. killing someone in a fit of rage, for instance.
    
    You’d have to be something akin to a fanatical believer in sharia law in order to defend or attempt to relativize that sort of legislation.
    
    Oh, wait. You are.
  - MadAsASnake
    
    And you think society should pay to lock people up for 10 years for sharing a song? Pretty fucked up mentality you have there.
    - Caspin
      
      I agree. Can you imagine our tribal ancestors for the last 4 million years arresting and locking each other up for sharing music? They’d all be really shocked to see what their sperms and eggs have brought about in the form of us.
- Samurai
  
  I think its time to get death penalty for online crime, its simply too soft to put filesharing criminals in jail and its also Expencive.
  
  Only Deathpenalty gives strong signal to filesharers to stop before its too late.
  
  All must accept truth to death!!!
  - Who
    
    FUCK YOU!
    - Darkhog
      
      Samurai joked, you moron.
    - ARSE
      
      FUCK OFF
  - Riaaweh
    
    Death by stoning!
    
    Behold! Whoever dare utter the word “torrent” SHALL BE STONED TO DEATH!!!!
    - dude
      
      death by listening to taylor swift endlessly until the person goes nuts. that’s a good punishment for stealing music.
    - Austin Williamson
      
      Nao! Justin Bieber! Or Barney! Or both – at the same time!
    - BuddhaFacePalmed
      
      Nyuuuu, not Barrneey. Maybe OneDirection. But never Barney…
    - UraPhake
      
      I’d much prefer that file sharing offenders be smothered to death under Fuko’s titties.
  - Andrew me
    
    Don’tworry 10 years in a Chinese jail is most probably a death sentence, damn them to hell, the music labels that forced this to happen that is.
    - UraPhake
      
      Chinese jail?
  - tonyj
    
    More like all must accept spelling check.
  - Guest
    
    Reminds me of the article on here before about the 1400s when copying flower patterns for clothing could get you killed and how it failed to stop people from infringing.
    
    Lets end copyright there is no fair copyright with these cartels.
  - SKiSH
    
    You sir, are a complete fucking imbecile if you’re not joking (which I sincerely hope you are).
    
    File sharing is the lifeblood of the internet and it’s impossible to police such a thing fairly and justly without arresting countless good natured individuals as well as bad.
    
    It only takes a sentence or two (refer to your poorly written comment) to make a person seem like a clueless, ignorant fool.
  - Herpa Derpa
    
    Death by SNU SNU! :P
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=676827475 Luke Solis
  
  as evil as the record company makes it.
- Andrew me
  
  The sad thing is that the copyright cartel can now be bunched with the Chinese for serious crimes against society, to side with them and encourage them to punish like this, seriously i think we need to start boycotting them big time and sending this story to every newspaper with the heading “Music labels support and encourage Chinese human rights violations”. You just know that these people are not going to be released before they are seriously punished and tortured, damn them damn the labels and all the “stars” that are allowing this to be done in their name. Every time someone mentions some music star i am going to say yes do you know they support Chinese human rights violations and actually encourage it and force it to happen because of their greed for money.
- Nasty
  
  How much will they get to kill Sony’s chairman and CEO? 7 years? DEAL! By the way how is going fuckuChima?
89

For those who didn’t know how powerful Japanese companies are: in the Netherlands, downloading child pornography can get you into jail for years. Downloading movies and music is allowed.
In Japan, downloading movies and music can get you into jail for years. Downloading child pornography is allowed.
- Ash
  
  creepy details
- Scary_Devil_Monastery
  
  The latter part has more to do with the fact that Japan doesn’t recognize cartoons of any kind as pornographic, and draws a strict line between viewing evidence of crime and actually committing a crime. Possession of pornography, even depicting real children, is legal. distributing is not.
  
  So in Japan you are in the clear when you specifically download a video of ten adults violating a ten year old.
  
  But if the video is copyrighted it’s likely that you will do the same time in jail as a perpetrator of the abuse – and the one who distributes the video without permission will go down to a far harder penalty than many of the participants.
- Ninja
  
  Child pornography is not allowed in Japan. You must be confusing child porn with lolicon (animation). Poor thing.
  - Scary_Devil_Monastery
    
    Did the law which failed to pass the diet in 2008 finally pass, then?
    
    Because otherwise, possession is not criminalized, where distribution most certainly is.
    
    Or are you talking about regionalized law?
    
    Or is this just the mentally bereft spiritual brother of bobmail and nonamthanks trying to obfuscate the issue?
Guest

Just goes to shows that Copyright Holders have bought and paid the law when you can get less than 10 years for committing murder.
- Guest
  
  What do you expect of a country that produces some of the weirdest, most disturbing pornography – but all hell breaks loose if so much as an uncensored penis appears?
  - Scary_Devil_Monastery
    
    That’s actually due to how the japanese developed censorship laws. Law in the west follows a “for the public good”paradigm. Japan didn’t get around to developing that by the 18th century at which point what they were confronted with was “law according to colonial power”.
    
    Case in point being the censorship laws. In the 18th century japan had no taboo on nudity or sexual matters. None at all. But when the first diplomats went to England they came back reporting that the entire west was circumscribed with strange sets of taboos dictating that erotically enticing scenes were considered offensive.
    
    Accordingly the japanese government instituted a censorship bureau with the task of ensuring erotically enticing material was blocked from printing.
    
    That law was very late in being reformed and so there is now a cultural bias mandating that in order to escape government censors you have to avoid the following criteria – pubic hair, developed secondary sexual characteristics. Large breasts and pubic hair being considered primary “enticers”.
    
    Hence why japanese erotic art of 30 year olds in the nude would have to ensure not showing body hair, developed breasts, etc. Surprise, surprise, even if the entire school-girl-and-tentacles paradigm is bypassed, japanese censorship law in some part dictates erotic art can only be unrestricted if it happens to turn the protagonists into immature-looking teens. And that was true up until relatively recently.
34

In Japan, © infringement is punisable under CRIMINAL law. That’s just crazy.
- Who
  
  ya same goes for the US. the US copyright act does mention criminal and civil. and the MPAARIAA push for criminal.
Guest

Japan’s music industry? It’s already half-dead now that everyone else in the world is either going after Girls Generation or Psy. The country’s youth population is in unemployment since corporate loyalty is so big in Japan, old guys take up all the jobs of the younger generation. Exactly how is all this supposed to help the music industry?

Never mind, of course, that any money from fines won’t be forwarded to starving Japanese artists. Japan can proceed to shove more of its unemployed population into jails, never mind that its economic capabilities are already deep in the shitter.
- UraPhake
  
  I’m an “old guy.”
  
  What in the hell is wrong with an “old guy” having a job?
  Old guys need to eat and put a roof over their head just as much as the younger generation. But hey, I have two adult daughters still mooching off of me and I don’t complain about it!
Pussingforabackbone

I love the photo of the computer and laptop displayed on the table as if it were bomb making material the police were cataloging before destroying. Insane, but for one of Americas closest friends it seems apropo.
- MadAsASnake
  
  Well, computers and CD-R’s are clearly seditious and highly illegal… oh… wait…
  - Time Pirate
    
    No, No, your are actually right owning a computer makes you a dangerous criminal
    
    http://boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1123cbCOMIC-computer-criminal.jpg
TheTapsa

So if someone is going to rat about your down-/uploadings to the police in japan, just kill him/her and serve less time in jail?
JangTrang

Ten years in jail? Are you kidding me? Thats insane dude.

Anon-Web.da.bz
IDIOCRACY

idiots! some persons in Japan should perform harakiri.
JapanandUSA2peasinapod

So I just read “All charges against those who cooked and ate a human penis on stage at a
Tokyo club have been dropped after it was determined they not actually
done anything illegal.”

So in Japan cannibalism is perfectly fine, but downloading a music video can net you a 10 million YEN fine and 10 years in jail… Makes perfect sense.
Violated0

These are of course the tip of the iceberg and is just being done as a show of force. Unless they are really keen to jail 10 to 20% of the entire population causing a social economy collapse then there you go.

They of course don’t have enough prisons for that many people. The other problem is that if they only target some lawbreakers and not others then this is unlawful in many countries when a law must be balanced and apply to all.

This only reminds me of alcohol prohibition in the USA when they used to raid places back then and arrest people. We know how that turned out and I can see no difference here when Government can never fight and win against a public demand that they see as morally valid.

My only pondering to this is why they arrested far less people than the number of places they raided? An IP address not identifying a person springs to mind meaning raids against innocents. The other possibility is strong encryption backed-up by strong denial. Their raid versus arrest rate though reflects to me a policy of charging in blind and catching the few guilty. To play fair they should also report their raid failures and the social damage caused.
- Gene Poole
  
  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2095193
  - Violated0
    
    A nice informative research paper where it is not often I read the whole thing.
    
    Government agents being intoxicated back then reminds me of Government agents downloading and infringing media on Government IP addresses now.
    - Gene Poole
      
      Indeed,
      
      Looking forward to the repeal of the current prohibition…the more that can be shown the parallel between prohibition and the war of copyright, the quicker this can (hopefully) be addressed and fixed. Pass it along…
- Caspin
  
  “a law must be balanced and apply to all.” In America if you roll past a stop sign, you get a $200 fine. It takes a college student over 25 hours of hard work to be able to pay that fine. It takes a multimillionaire less than 5 minutes to earn $200. The truth is that no law is fair.
  - n_mailer
    
    “The truth is that no law is fair.”
    
    The stop sign law is fair because:
    - The law is easy to understand and follow.
    
    - It’s supported by the general population.
    - It’s enforced against everyone who is seen breaking it.
    - It punishes offensive, unsafe behavior, not safe, philosophically neutral behavior.
    - Caspin
      
      Actually it’s not fair. See, I am a millionaire. And I don’t care about paying $200 for running a stop sign. So when I hit your car and kill your daughter because I don’t care about such a tiny, inconsequential fine, then you’d see how it would be best to have the punishment match the pocketbook.
    - Thee Grim One
      
      There are so many problems with that train of thought, heres just a couple. 1 You would have to be able to define what a persons “pocketbook” value is (who would determine that? the Govt?) which leads to more loopholes about liquid assets versus physical assets, debt versus value of assets, versus IRS income stats versus more govt. bloating and time wasted. 2 The people on the lowest end of the financial spectrum will pay no fine if they are homeless/have no valuable possessions, so in your theory, they could break a law and pay nothing because they have no income/pocketbook to speak of??? Gee that sounds like a wonderful system, would make me feel much safer…SMH
    - Caspin
      
      Looks like nobody agreed with you Three Grim One. The reason is because you are wrong.
  - Scary_Devil_Monastery
    
    In Sweden the law has two ways of determining penalties for fines in that regard. A violator of offenses such as minor drug violations or reckless endangerment gets sentenced to pay a number (between 30 and 150, usually) of “day fines”. Each fine being calculated as a portion of your annual income with a set minimum amount and no upper limit.
    
    So in Sweden, getting hit with 80 day fines will sting, irrespective of whether you are a millionaire or middle class.
- Ninja
  
  And based on France example consumption of legal content may go down. I do hope it plummets. Bunch of morons the Japanese Govt are.
http://www.facebook.com/forkingham.melle Forkingham Melle

at the rate we are going, more prisons are going to have to be built, and to think, in sharing something we are put with real criminals? this is becoming very interesting, i predict a riot, power to the people and down with all politicians underwear, in public
NOOB

Fuck Japan. Prison term for sharing ? Kidding ?!
- afndimrdandi
  
  Don’t blame the people for there government. There the victims, not the problem!
  - capello
    
    Their government
    they’re the victims
  - ItsTheSasquatch
    
    No one seems to understand this concept. The people have no power over the ruling class; not in America, not in Japan, nowhere. Except maybe the people of 18th century France, who beheaded their aristocracy, putting the rest of us to shame by doing so while French.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gear-Mentation/100003097514663 Gear Mentation

Well, they are right. It’s just as bad as using pot.
downunder

more funny if most are innocent and didnt know they have wifi hacked by a neighbor.. dont they have many free hotspots over there too? poor jap vpn owners huh

arrr.. 10 years.. china will do better firing squad
but then force labour for 10 years so dont have to hire workers then firing squad and harvest the kidneys to sell to rich media producers in the usa LOL nah joking.. they arent so corrupt really are they :)
- Caspin
  
  racist
  - downunder
    
    hardly drip…why cos i said jap? wtf or was it cos what I said about human rights in china how they treat criminals … anyhow we have tonnes of chinese friends and homestays and jap friends too living with and around us they come downunder to live as well you know its very multiculture place we live in- the world is so fooken PC-ers now days.. look what thats gotten us.. the govs rule us and lie all the time when in power
Pingback: Japanese Police Arrest 27 File-Sharers in Nationwide Show of Force | We R Pirates
abouttime

You lot did not really think you were going to be allowed to run around a virtual wild west stealing did you.
Just because something is easy to steal does not make it ok to do so.
I am glad these tough measures are coming in. It is really sad that these sort of tings have to be brought in because some of you don’t know the fucking rules. Bang a few 10 year sentences up your asses and the rest will start wearing brown trosers and comply like good little gutless cowards. Bye bye scum
- Nazi-Alert-System
  
  Brown trousers? Goes well with your brown shirts.
  - DiD
    
    and his brown nose..!
- John
  
  Go fuck yourself.
- John
  
  I think you are one of those RIAA/DMCA crap . Go sodomize yourself with retractable batons .
- Techanon
  
  Nobody stole nothing here. Downloading, copying and uploading is NOT stealing. It’s not even comparable.
- Liam JH
  
  nothing has been stolen.
  Fuck off Bob
- http://www.facebook.com/forkingham.melle Forkingham Melle
  
  abouttime cunt in 23 languages, and get a dictionary , trosers, fucking idiot
- lul
  
  you mad trash ?
U-95

I don’t know how will be japanese law, but surely far worse crimes as you say will have lighter penalties. It’s also curious how stealing an album in a shop -something that, unlike file sharing, causes an actual economic loss to the seller- undoubtely will get you a way less harsh penalty.

Guess those ideas must be something caused by the remaining radiation of those two damned nukes.

The arrested people, if they end up jailed, etc. will be seen as martyrs, you can be sure. And if they decide to put death penalty -in Japan it exists, it will be worse-.
Criminal Law FFS?

holy crap! glad i’m not in japan!!

well that will be the end of any japanese ip addresses in the swarms…
- Scary_Devil_Monastery
  
  Not likely, no.
  
  Recall how Jamie Lee Thomas ended up paying 220,000$? As a single mother?
  
  Ostensibly, her life is over. Far worse than a ten year prison sentence, given her finances, I’d say.
  
  And kindly note there has been no shortage of US ip adresses in any swarm.
Who

Well I do believe now that it is time for a FULL boycott on the MPAA/RIAA/porn industry/software developers and the game developers.
- PiRat
  
  You weren’t doing that anyways?
  
  (Boycotting MAFIAA and anti-P2P software/game devs).
  - Who
    
    not a FULL boycott. a full boycott is NOT buying there works and not sharing there works, not just stop buying.
    - PiRat
      
      Sharing seems to annoy them so we should probably carry on :)
    - Who
      
      ya and eventually it will stop if people do actually stop buying.
Eddy Least

Sorry if i’m out of the topic but how Japanese law does enforce this punishment while credit card scammers in Japan can operate freely, does anybody knows about it?
- Scary_Devil_Monastery
  
  The answer is, I should think, obvious.
  
  Japanese law is not able to “enforce” either law. They’ve simply been able to nab ten filesharers after god alone knows how much effort.
  
  And you know, I highly doubt this will do much other than harden resistance in japan as it has in other countries.
  - Fantastic
    
    wonder how long it will take to get one case against a sharer. Probably go after the word processing guy first.
    - Scary_Devil_Monastery
      
      well, in this case I suspect it’s in reality actually less hazardous to fileshare in japan.
      
      See, a criminal case requires hard evidence. And penal law leaves far less loopholes for civil cases than civil law does.
      
      Hence the police in Japan may nab the odd filesharer but it’s likely the standard *IAA method of trying to sue several thousands of them won’t work.
hilarious

oh well not the prisons will be full of file sharers instead of rapists and murders. good going human race on being a bunch of fools.
anonymous

and another country that thinks more of movies and music than people! how the hell can anywhere justify sharing/downloading a disk or media file being worth imprisonment, let alone 10 years? it’s fucking insane!! what have the entertainment industries bribed with or offered to the politicians, law enforcement and courts to warrant treating their own citizens in such a disgraceful way?
Rightstuff9

Bark dog, Bark dog. We all know Japan is on a leash of the US. They really do everything to accomodate big brother.
MadAsASnake

Now, I am fascinated, they raided 124 locations and “caught” 27 people? That is just over 20%. Now, if we assume the usual figure, 4 people to a household, 25 – 33% of people engage in some sort of sharing, then roughly 50% ish of households (I assume that this is what “locations” means) will have a sharer. I’m assuming they were using IP “evidence”. Now, these numbers suggest that they could have raided 124 totally random locations and got a better strike rate. Of the 97 locations that did not lead to an arrest, I guess these are made up of people who hid stuff, and people who didn’t do it – probably mostly the latter. That’s a lot of police aggravation against innocent folks for some pretty trivial issues. It’s outrageous.
Anon

All commerce is moving to digital format. That we can agree on. So can anyone here explain why TF posters continue to pretend this is about “sharing”? You can’t keep posting this stupid “all judges are bribed” shit forever, can you? This is about a global economy going forward in a new digital format, with digital files retaining price because THAT is what is FAIR to (now) about 90% of the digital world. That’s what this has been about all along.

Your numbers keep falling and you have no power, you can hide for awhile longer until they find you and that’s the best you’ve got to get entertainment for free for awhile. And you are selfish enough to keep trying.

This is also about piracy being linked to the past, a “wild west” past, with a thriving paid-digital economy through patent and copyright enforcement going forward. They will lock you up if you require them to do that, to keep digital files for sale. And the more you resist, the more digital privacy and freedom we lose. And EVERYBODY with a brain for the past 12 years can see that.

Who here is so stupid you still think this is about your “right to break the law” in privacy. Hahahaha morons.
- Guest
  
  You don’t need all judges to be bribed for shit like this to happen, jackass.
  
  I was wondering where you’ve been rotting, Anon. I suppose since you had to take extended leave to suck off daddy Pelouzey bobmail had to pick up your slack. You lazy scumsucker.
  
  So remind me again – are there more or less pirates breaking more or less law two or five or ten years ago?
  
  Make up your damn mind! Your brain damage is showing!
- clickClick
  
  soon everyone of you riaa/mpaa criminals will loose your jobs and family and every thing you love.like manny of you already did :)
- Scary_Devil_Monastery
  
  “All commerce is moving to digital format. That we can agree on.”
  
  Except for the 98% of it which does not. Please continue.
  
  “This is about a global economy going forward in a new digital format, with digital files retaining price because THAT is what is FAIR to (now) about 90% of the digital world.”
  
  Except for the 99% of the digital world which does not consider this “fair”. If it were, I’d be able to pay rent with copies of Justin Bieber and Jonas Brothers.
  
  And digital files do not retain price at all so that’s just flat-out lying.
  
  “Your numbers keep falling and you have no power…”
  
  Except that piracy seems to be growing and these days, legislative measures seem to be coming down on our side, not yours.
  
  “you can hide for awhile longer until they find you and that’s the best you’ve got to get entertainment for free for awhile.”
  
  Because very soon you will send evil leprechauns mounted on unicorns to haul us all into jail after a great deal of magical hand-waving has begun to nail more pirates than people who get struck by lightning each year?
  
  “This is also about piracy being linked to the past, a “wild west” past, with a thriving paid-digital economy through patent and copyright enforcement going forward.”
  
  Other way around. Every new progress in technology makes it harder NOT to pirate. Casually. Piracy is not a problem for someone living in the 18th century unless it involves ships.
  
  Indeed, copyright enforcement hit diminishing returns two seconds after the internet was invented and has gone downhill ever since. Piracy is, in short, a future phenomenon. Copyrights and patents ostensibly a past one.
  
  “They will lock you up if you require them to do that, to keep digital files for sale….”
  
  Because making a copy of media outranks assault and larceny. Not to mention in your little world a case can be made that society should bear the cost of your business model failing.
  
  “…And the more you resist, the more digital privacy and freedom we lose…”
  
  Because when the woman is being beaten by the irate husband it’s her fault for being “uppity”. Class act as usual there, Baghdad Bob.
  
  …And EVERYBODY with a brain for the past 12 years can see that.”
  
  You mean the way everybody with a brain can see we’re all more likely to get hit by lightning than being nailed due to piracy?
  
  No, Baghdad Bob, as usual you are metaphorically standing in front the Baghdad palace with two parked M1 tanks and a gaggle of amused US marines standing in the background while holding your little rant about how the superior forces of Saddam will throw the infidel out of Iraq tomorrow.
  
  And this time you even took your time to garnish the speech with an exposé of why Saddam is the one and only ruler merited to hold Iraq to boot.
  
  It’s good to see you back. bobmail and nonamthanks have done their level best to maintain your spectacularly low fact standard but for true entertainment value, you still stand head and shoulders above.
  
  In the spirit of irony, you should charge for such performance.
- Oath
  
  I always wonder, where are those people who produce all that stuff that finally ends up on the monthly most torrent movie list here on TF? Why its always the stuff from the corrupt coke snoring hollywood movie machine, never the immensely self-exploited “alternative” freeware make-what you wish with my stuff uploader, who is willing to die for his craft and his servitude to an unsuspecting anonymous crowd?
  If there was such an desire for such a seemingly wonderful job, wouldn’t people do it already? “Just asking”.
  
  Japan has now the same pro-copyright-idiots like everywhere else. If feel sad for the country.
- Hurr
  
  Keep sucking your masters cocks and licking their pussies and foots..
The_Doorman

What surprised me most about this, is that people are still using WinMX. Keepin’ it oldschool!
Ignas

Lets do some thinking here: sometimes we play video games, watch movies; listen to music, to get this feeling of accomplishing something or simply for adrenaline. Nowadays, sharing or downloading content is punished quite harshly in some cases.

Now ask yourself: is it really worth doing that for the punishment you can get? It might happen so that the punishment for sharing and downloading is way more than a punishment for a rape, molesting, torturing, or even killing someone.

Have you ever though how much adrenaline you would feel if you would rape a MAFIAA worker or his family? or simply kill them? It can create a lot of adrenaline. And you know what’s the best part? You can get less punished for that than if you would have downloaded or shared something.

Remember the rule: less punishment means it is less of a bad thing, and you don’t want to do a bad things, if sharing is worse than killing or raping someone, obviously you should go with a rape or a kill.
So, next time before you do sharing or downloading, consider checking out your laws.

P. S. I’m not the crazy one, MAFIAA got this to such point. I’m just talking about which crime is a less of a crime.
- Anon
  
  This is deep, empirical quality, pirate thought. I think you should go with it.
  - Ignas
    
    Um no, I won’t do it, but I hope that I wrote vividly enough to make people think about how unbalanced some punishments are.
    - Anon
      
      Can you explain why even the harshest punishments, even life imprisonment would not appropriate for a cartel of pirates working in secrecy and unlawfully to dismantle the future of digital commerce? The entire thrust of a growing global economy is for-sale digital files, while piracy has demonstrably forestalled industrial growth, job creation, the tax base and the simple time-tested sanctity that a product of value should have its price no matter what the format. You are mired in the past. It’s time to step up to digital commerce, not hiding and stealing and bragging about it.
      
      It’s hard to imagine something more defiantly subversive when merchandise for sale and borne from R&D investment has always been a protected entity throughout time, regardless of format. Why should any format change make any difference when the time and effort investments by the artist are the same?
      
      And why should artists and rightsholder not use everything at their disposal to curtail you when pirates are doing exactly the same thing to do as much damage as you can to digital commerce? And threatening our very freedoms at the same time! Just do without if you don’t want to pay. That’s not some original thought, that price-for-value has been in effect for thousands of years.
      
      You are either very deeply damaged or desperately confused or you get a thrill from destruction. Probably all three.
    - Ignas
      
      Well I am desperately confused why this MAFIAA thing is still existing, that is true.
      
      Firstly, not all artists are against piracy, some even manage to benefit from it, so don’t mix everyone into the same pot.
      
      Secondly, how do you know what those who you define as “pirates” are the bad guys?
      If you would ask Adolph Hitler, he would say to you what Jews are the bad guys, and they should get harshest punishment what can possibly exist, because they are Jews.
      
      Thirdly, MAFIAA and some artists, while protecting their “property”, some of which contains traces from the other properties, does threaten our very freedoms. They threaten it way more than “pirates”.
      
      And finally, not everyone can afford to buy a movie for 20$, I’m not talking about people who are starving, but about students who might be in debt, and unable to have a job what pays good enough.
    - UraPhake
      
      Yeah, you probably believe the 8-billion dollar iPod as well as the Easter Bunny. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Too bad. All of your statements are demonstrably false. Kiss much MAFIAA ass lately?
    - Ophelia Millais
      
      I don’t see that digital commerce is being damaged. Money is being made hand over fist, despite widespread piracy. Go ahead:
      
      1. jail every pirate
      2. ???
      3. profit!
      
      or
      
      1. quit yer bitchin’
      2. continue to profit as you are now
      
      Your choice.
    - Scary_Devil_Monastery
      
      “You are either very deeply damaged or desperately confused or you get a thrill from destruction. Probably all three.”
      
      Given how you earlier gloated advocated rape as suitable punishments, collective punishment, reversal of burden of proof, and acknowledged you were fine with being a dictionary-definition fascist…I’m tempted here to raise the issues of pots and kettles.
      
      I’ll have to settle, instead, for pointing out the blindingly obvious. That every statement you made is an outright lie.
      
      Because it relies on a set of data being equivalent to a physical item existing in scarcity and makes the assumption that you can rewrite market laws accordingly.
      
      In short, your “price-for-value” has never existed in any human history for information which was not kept secret. To date only communists and religious fanatics have subscribed to the idea that it is.
    - Stainless-Steel-Rat
      
      Well, if you think that downloading a movie or a song is equivalent to a mass murder and should be punished equally, then you have some really f***ed up moral issues. As moral, as Japanese hentai or bukkake. Congratulations – you are one f***ed up individual.
Vicious

This shit’s fucking ridicules. Let them try this in the U.S, or Europe and The people Would Revolt. They can’t do this shit to Japan..dumbest law ever.
Mac

Just go on YouTube now all the music and movies are there, for free and you locking people up for$ 21,000…
- babydingo
  
  no shit. irony, right?
http://twitter.com/NigaStoleMyXbox Ellis Dee

I guess we should have dropped more bombs.
http://twitter.com/NigaStoleMyXbox Ellis Dee

あなたは、日本ファック。私たちはあなたに多くの爆弾を投下している必要がありますね。あなたの狂気の法律のために地獄のあなたの母親の膣腐敗することがあります。
- http://www.facebook.com/forkingham.melle Forkingham Melle
  
  Ellis Dee i have tried and googyly translated of above means this ……..
  You fuck Japan. We need to have a lot of drop bombs on you. May your mother’s vagina rot in hell for your crazy laws
  
  i well, that’s one way of putting it
  - ScrewEwe2
    
    I think
    Ellis Dee has been hitting the Lysergic Acid Diethylamide too much.
- http://www.facebook.com/hiteksoul Andrew Thomas
  
  Really? I would have never guessed so. That is one good story.
- Riku
  
  Wow Ellis, あんたはどあほです。日本語も最低ですね。そんな愚の骨頂はメリットがあるのですか?
- Who
  
  ので、誰もが自動翻訳の使い方を知らないと思いますか？および米国市民はそれが米国政府だった、日本に爆弾を落としていませんでした。
- ScrewEwe2
  
  What a dick UR.
tmc8080

Meanwhile, the country sell out to the big oil interests as the Japanese economy collapses. Mothballing hydrogen cars will damage the Japanese economy in ways not seen since WW2.
thisguy1337

Look at all the trolls that went to Japan to make a quick buck, MPAJ, JIMCA, ACCS, JVA, JASRAC, BSA.

I guess they had to do something. It looks bad when you have 100+ anti-piracy employees and nothing is getting done.

I try to tell people all the time, protect your online privacy with a VPN. I’ve been spreading the word ever since a year ago when this whole RIAA – MPAA issue started.

Now when I see someone get legal action I just say, “Another one bites the dust”
Japan’s Degrading

And people say its good to live in Japan? Hahaha I laugh at those anime freak western wannabe’s you shitters!
Darkhog

Nice. Japan had biggest technological progress to this point. Now everything went f**ck itself.
- joexxx
  
  That would be false. Japan is backwards in many technology areas.
  - Techanon
    
    That’s why he used past tense.
Typhoid Mary

In America we can hardly keep our violent criminals in jail let alone a bunch of File-sharers. When they start to arrest kids that’s when the public will rethink this policy.
örp

And this is all happening because of America… Thanks you arseholes!
- ItsTheSasquatch
  
  Just a few specific Americans, actually, along with a certain Japanese electronics conglomerate and assorted rich bastards around the world. Most Americans are unaware this is even happening (by design–the mainstream media conveniently fails to report it). The few that are can’t do anything about it due to the way the electoral process works, and they certainly can’t compete with the sheer quantity of bribe money (“lobbying”) being thrown at our “elected” officials (“here are two equally corrupt douchebags, pick whichever one you want to anally rape you for the next four years”).
Anymouse

After WWII Japan’s interests became corporatist in nature. They bowed to the US ‘freedom’ which changed their economic practices to reflect the US consumption based economy. Look at the amount of merchandising in Japan, practically everything is exploited to the point where a concept becomes branded and exploited by producing everything from trading card games to food representing that brand.

As well, their technological progress really is specific. The average household/workplace in Japan may still be using Fax machines, Dot Matrix Printers, and other old technologies the Western World sees as archaic.

The aggressive nature of this new law and acts upon it simply reflect the type of economic and sociopolitical state they were put in at the end of WWII. Which in itself is just a unique case of what’s happening all over the world. The Japanese already have strict laws regarding theft, so to make their population believe file sharing is theft is an easy stone to throw. And in a country with something like a 98% conviction rate, is any of this really surprising?
ThumbsUpThumbsDown

I have no Idea whether Japanese citizens enjoy much in the way of Constitutional Rights; but, if the system is not completely Corporately Imperial, there might be some hope that there is a difference between accusing, arresting, and abusing these people, and persuading an Appellate Court that a few fascist bureaocrats haven’t gotten out of control.

Be pessimistic: If Japan is here defining the future standards of Democratic governance for Europe and America, we are globally screwed.
- Anymouse
  
  It’s doubtful that the world will take on the same repressive actions as Japan, at least right away. Their culture has made it almost impossible to speak out, when conforming to their leader’s wishes is universally accepted.
  
  But then again looking at the central banks leeching money from our economy, we’re already globally screwed.
- frozar
  
  They have a Constitution. Americans forced one on them.
Ober

In Croatia you get 10 years if you kill someone in rage.You get more if its premeditated and extra years if it was cruel.Maximum penalty is 40 years in prison.For file sharing you get nothing,but it is illegal.To get a better picture,two years ago, T-Com had an advertisement for their new fast flat internet ”Download Music and Movies Fast And Unlimited”.I think enough is said.
- frozar
  
  10 years is a bit short for murder. That person, without judge or jury, gave someone else the death sentence. Yet we give them the leniency to live out their life while denying it to someone else? But prison for file sharing is beyond idiotic.
  - Scary_Devil_Monastery
    
    Not murder. Ten years for what in the US is known as manslaughter.
    
    In most US states, voluntary manslaughter (beating someone to death or shooting them in a fit of passion) is usually between 5 and 15 years.
    
    Involuntary (a beating resulting in death without intent to cause death) is usually up to 8 years.
    
    So, put that in comparison. If you were to encounter the CEO of SONY on the street and a resulting scuffle resulted in his death while you were off your head, odds are you’d get off easier than you’d get uploading a copy of a Jonas Brother’s CD.
Hogspace

So now we know Sony owns the Japanese government.
I’d say FU Japan but we nuked the little cunts twice already.
xStatiCa

So the government fronts the bills to keep them in prison for 10 years for sharing a 99 cent song or a $50 game? I am surprised the companies supporting this measures was able to get that big logic problem passed through the government.
tonyj

We have the power to boycott Record companies. If we want, we can close them down.
jay

The lack of second amendment leaves the japanese helpless
muhfiles

The situation is like a kindergarten here in Japan, people tell on you (report you to police) if they see you pirating illegal files or find evidence that you are using cracked software during a live broadcast and such. please grow up Japan!
http://about.me/WolfHavenXIII Wolf Haven

So downloading music gets you up to 10 years but killing 3 people while illegally driving only gets you 5 years… totally makes sense.
Time Pirate

You have been caught doing unhonorable thing here’s a tantō now commit seppuku you shameful file-sharer

Now Japan is taking care of that aging problem by throwing the young in jail…. oh wait

“Now off I go to rape and plunder after downloading a movie or music because if I am going to spend 10 years in jail at least I might take some profit before I’m caught” (If the situation continues escalating I actually see this future coming)

On further notice Japan is this http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/sheeple.png

But I better be carefull http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wake_up_sheeple.png
RIAA Is Corrupt

Overkill. Plain & simple.
ItsTheSasquatch

Try that in a country with a population that hasn’t been disarmed and turned into helpless sheep, and the headline will be much, much different.
PelouzeTF

A country that has a real deterrent for once.
- Guest
  
  Yes, a real deterrent from buying any more media. Nice going, jackass!
  - PelouzeTF
    
    Apart from media that you couldn’t download for free online (like ROM games) you’re downloading copy-written media even though authorized online purchases are available. Jackass ;)
- Scary_Devil_Monastery
  
  You know, Pelouze…every time I think you people can not stoop lower in your sociopathic little dystopian outlook you prove me wrong.
  
  You realize that Japan then has a penalty for uploading a copy of media to someone else which is equivalent to how most US states treat voluntary manslaughter?
  
  The silver lining to be found here is that every time someone like you makes a comment, another pirate springs from the ground.
  
  I have myself seen firsthand what happens when one of your spiritual brethren found it suitable to lambast a child for questioning copyright in the presence of the child’s mother. Two new converts instantly ,and all the work done by your propaganda.
  
  And this is why you are losing. Your message is inhumane to the point where it is only rivaled by the speeches of a glassy-eyed sovjet commissar.
  
  And in that spirit I encourage you to not stop posting.
  - Gene Poole
    
    Everytime they gloat over a civil liberties’ abuse, a pirate gets his eyepatch.
    
    Love it
    - Scary_Devil_Monastery
      
      I do as well.
      
      People like nonamthanks and Pelouze do all my work for us, meaning quite a few parents willingly sign on with the pirate ship or – more likely so far – become willing sympathizers carrying the message into their own political leanings.
JG

in re: the picture… Three towers were seized, but only 1 keyboard & mouse??? Speaking of, why were the keyboard & mouse seized? Did they some how contain copyrighted material? Are the three boxes down in front external hard drives? They kind of look like routers or maybe modems…. And the screen behind them – it looks kind of funky to be a monitor – is it a tablet? Or maybe an all-in-one monitor/tower combo???
Reuters

Why don’t you post a link to your source on this? Talk about amateur hour.
JbstormburstADV

Argh, the comments are starting to blend that actual issue with all of that anti-Japanese crap that the really obstinate Chinese are still spreading, even considering that the Prime Minister made a public apology at least a decade ago by now.
7ess

how sad…. meanwhile the real criminals like the copyright holders and governments are free to do as they like….
7ess

penalty for rape or destroying someone life, 2 to 3 years, downloading 10!!?? does that make sense???
- Stainless-Steel-Rat
  
  Exactly! I have an idea – if I go to Japan and they catch me uploading a song (from a licensed overpriced CD I BOUGHT) for a friend – I may kill/rape the cop that comes to arrest me – just for fun – it’ll add just a couple of years to the sentence, not a big deal. ;)
Guest

>Upload video clip
>10 years in jail

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore. (I would move, if i could.)
ScrewEwe2

“Three men arrested for uploading video games using WinMX (October 16)” WinMX? I thought that stopped working years ago.
- Scary_Devil_Monastery
  
  Nope. I think what we’re mainly looking at are all those guys who use direct-connect clients such as WinMX, DC++ or Kazaa.
  
  Tragic as this case may be it’s still much like reading about how someone has gone down to a firearms law for dragging a loaded arquebus around.
  - ScrewEwe2
    
    “arquebus”. Had to look that one up. “The arquebus, or “hook tube”, is an early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. In distinction from its predecessor the hand cannon.”
    - Scary_Devil_Monastery
      
      Clunky, unwieldy and usually had to be fired with the muzzle resting on a Y-shaped stand which the gunner had to carry along everywhere.
      
      Fits the simile to WinMX perfectly.
ScrewEwe2

Looks like I should go download the latest pirated builds of Sony Apps like Acid Pro, Vegas Pro and DVD Architect Pro for kicks.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=536486708 Coal Miki-Restall

Correct me if I’m wrong here but… All these people were arrested for uploading or otherwise making available pirated goods, and under pre-existing laws, this was punishable by up to 10 years prison etc., so how is this related to the NEW laws that came in October? Everything in the article points to the enforcement being consistent with the old laws.
Pingback: Japanese Police Arrest 27 File-Sharers in Nationwide Show of Force
Anon33

Someone needs to make a professional looking future film with the KimDotCom raid, a mock-up of these Japan raids, prisoners in cells with the finishing quote “Downloading anything in the future will make you an enemy of the state. Fight the corporate media companies and america now, while you can!”
jamie_said_so

dumb ass gooks
http://www.postlinearity.com gregorylent

beginning to despise the corporatocracy of the “developed” countries ..

why should the world’s technical realities be thwarted in order to serve outdated business concepts?

this is abuse of government power.
Pingback: Japão prende 27 pessoas por pirataria | Livre Navegar
LOLs4Japan

#Let me get my RANT ON!

And that, kids, is why nobody should ever pay for censored porn. xD FU Japanese porn producers. Won’t ever see a fuckin dollar out of me you little cuntfag, tentacle obsessed pedobears. I would support the artists that draw me up some nice T&A but as I know the product comes out flawed by guv’ment sanctioned bullshit (that’s what it is) I feel hardly enticed into dropping any cash on that stuff. Problem artists? Why not publish your shit on the other side of the world then as is after creation. Oh wait the west thinks that drawing child pr0n is a despicable crime (of thought =D ). And anybody consuming them doujins or sleeping with dakimakuras that have skimpy clothed or nude depictions of child aged characters is a sick fuck … well they probably are but they have not committed any crime yet so what? There are people that married their goddamn pillows, game boys, left or right hand :D and the guv’ment signed that shit too.

Hell you aren’t even consistent on your goddamn censorship in printed media. Sometimes the genitalia gets blurred minecraft style, sometimes there is a tiny – < this tiny line to cover like the most sensitive parts (lol), sometimes you simply color the whole "thing" monochrome and leave the shape untouched, sometimes there is a white fog/shiny prick covering the action. However that GURO shit with murder fantasies and the most detailed depiction of human suffering is A-okay by your standards…

Fuck is wrong with that fuckin country?

Shouldn't you all be more worried about your suicide rate and corruption of guv'ment? Or violence in schools and fucking gropers on public transportation? Or the cleanup of radiated stuff after the incident caused by a huge Tsunami? <- thanks for that btw. Good going with them power plants in that earthquake-ridden shithole of an island. (Yeah I know that is not the only NPP in a problematic spot)

#and now back to fappin'
SCNR
- commenter8
  
  Actually, the US Supreme Court ruled more than a decade ago that virtual child porn is legally protected as free speech…
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashcroft_v._Free_Speech_Coalition
chunjie821

tinyurl.com/cnaff79.
Pingback: La policía japonesa arrestó a 27 usuarios que compartían archivos | Partido Pirata
ARSE

FUCK OFF CHINKS
anonymoose

wow, arrested 27 people NATIONWIDE in a show of force
deacon 2112

Welcome to Ferenginar
Pingback: 新法案“到位”：日本当局打击文件分享盗版犯罪全国范围逮捕27人 | 帮你资源
Pingback: Japan u pohodu na kriminalne pirate // Gadgeterija
Pingback: Japan’s Copyright Law just got serious: 27 arrested during 3-day nationwide anti-piracy crackdown | Reviews, news, tips, and tricks | dotTech
Pingback: Japan’s Copyright Law just got serious: 27 arrested during 3-day nationwide anti-piracy crackdown
Pingback: Japan: When We Say No To Piracy We Mean It
http://twitter.com/4pp13Sauc3 Ben Branch

And think, Japanese prisoners are even more social pariahs than in the US! This is just cruel and unusual legislation by the Japanese. They should be ashamed of themselves for making these people look shamed.
Pingback: How not to rank countries in terms of ‘cloud readiness’ — Tech News and Analysis
Pingback: How not to rank countries in terms of ‘cloud readiness’ ← techtings
Charles

I think we are just WEEKS aware from nationwide riots and mass demonstrations in most Western Countries, maybe the same in Japan
Flench

The National Police Agency in Japan is widely seen as a joke. Their officers are regularly reported for corruption in the national media. Why go after child pornography or the yakuza when they can go after file sharers. What a joke.
Pingback: Japan is Cracking Down on File Sharing « Digital Media Law Seminar SP13

TorrentFreak

The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide

Japanese Police Arrest 27 File-Sharers in Nationwide Show of Force

Related Posts

Previous Post | Next Post

NewsBits

The Pirate Bay Isn’t Down Completely, Just Having a Few Issues

Pirate Bay Founder Gottfrid Svartholm on Freedom of Speech

Blu-ray Anti-Piracy Tech Stops Discs and Promotes Purchases

Foxtel Breeds Pirates by Locking Up Game of Thrones

UK Student Admits Breaching Sony Copyrights With Leak of PS3 SDK

MostDiscussed

Pirate Bay Takes Over Distribution of Censored 3D Printable Gun

The Pirate Bay Moves to .SX as Prosecutor Files Motion to Seize Domains

Copyright Trolls Threaten to Call Neighbors of Accused Porn Pirates

Game Pirates Whine About Piracy in Game Dev Simulator

Netflix Says It’s ‘Killing’ BitTorrent Traffic

CopyQuote

PopularArticles

VPN Services That Take Your Anonymity Seriously, 2013 Edition

Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2013

Which VPN Service Providers Really Take Anonymity Seriously?

What’s The Best VPN / Proxy for BitTorrent?

BTGuard Review: How Does it Work?

Optimize Your BitTorrent Download Speed