Japan Police Arrested 19 for Anime/Movie Piracy

By: Unknown on 08:43

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Japanese police have recently arrested 19 people accused of illegally sharing popular anime shows and films without permission from copyright owners. Under pressure from rightsowners, the country enforced new law two years ago which would consider the downloading of unauthorized material as a serious criminal offense. People accused of copyright infringement, even on a small scale, can face up to 2 years prison time.

The first big crackdown was carried out a year ago, when Japanese police carried out searches on more than a hundred locations and arrested 27 individuals suspected of sharing songs, films, TV shows, games and software without permission of copyright owners.

A year passed, and local authorities seem to be flexing their muscles again, now in pursuit of Internet users sharing videos. Anime News Network revealed that between February 25-27 Japanese police raided over a hundred locations across the country again, searching for 24 anime pirates who were alleged to use sharing software like Cabos, Share, Perfect Dark and the infamous Winny.

Thus far, police had arrested 19 suspects, including a 51-year-old man who is alleged to have uploaded a few anime videos illegally as well.

Despite the statistics saying that peer-to-peer file-sharing use is on a downward trend, the Recording Industry Association of Japan claims that the Japanese tough copyright legislation has so far done nothing to boost music sales. However, it is unclear how arrests can help boost those sales either.