Copiratic chaos in Japan: two years in prison for the downloaded file

Last week, the Japanese parliament passed a law according to which downloading pirated music or cinema is now a criminal offense and is punishable by imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to two million yen ($ 25,000). The law comes into force in October of this year. Previously, for downloading was provided for civil liability. In most countries of the world, only distribution of pirated content is considered a criminal offense. New Japanese law raises the degree of trade to a new level.



The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) is not going to stop there. RIAJ wants to force providers to install a system to prevent the publication of pirated content. This system will scan all outbound user traffic and block it, in case the algorithm considers it pirated . Particularly interesting are the arguments of RIAJ in favor of the fact that this system will be beneficial for providers (at a license cost of about $ 600 per month): it will allow to avoid lawsuits from copyright holders for distributing illegal content. An offer that is very difficult to refuse!



An attempt to introduce a similar filtering system in Europe failed - in 2011, the European Court made a decision in the case of the Belgian association of rights holders SABAM against the provider Scarlet. SABAM required the installation of a similar user surveillance system. However, the judges concluded that it violates the fundamental rights of both the provider and subscribers.