A man from Japan has been arrested by police for infringing copyright on file-sharing networks. The 25 year-old from Ashiyashi City, Hyogo, was detained April 4th on accusations that he uploaded anime and manga without the copyright holders’ permission. According to the police, the unemployed man uploaded the 50th episode of Sunrise’s Turn A Gundam [...]
A prestigious economics think-tank of the Japanese Government has published a study which concludes that online piracy of anime shows actually increases sales of DVDs. The conclusion stands in sharp contrast with the entertainment industry’s claims that ‘illicit’ downloading is leading to billions of dollars in losses worldwide. It also puts the increased anti-piracy efforts of the anime industry in doubt.
Piracy worries and BitTorrent lawsuits have made their way into the generally very liberal anime industry. Last week, the producers of the new anime series Fractale told distributor Funimation to stop the online broadcast of the their show in the United States over piracy concerns, and a few days later Funimation announced a lawsuit against 1337 alleged BitTorrent downloaders.
The High Court in Singapore has ordered an ISP to hand over the personal details of its customers who used BitTorrent to share Japanese anime titles, overturning a previous decision. The decision will likely pave the way to taking legal action against hundreds more BitTorrent users.
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Peter Sunde Left Quote
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