Friday, May 9, 2008

“Gundam” file sharers arrested

While this story isn’t specific to any film I did find it interesting, so I’m passing it on to you.

Anime News Network ran a story today about Kyoto Prefectural Police’s High Tech Crime unit arresting three people for illegally distributing unauthorized episodes of “Mobile Suit Gundam”. The suspects apparently used a Japanese peer-to-peer file sharing software strangely enough called Share. The developer of the software, a Isamu Kaneko, had been previous convicted for illegally sharing copyrighted material in 2003 and sentenced to ¥1.5 million fine ($14,640 CDN).

Japanese law strictly prohibits illegal uploading of copyrighted materials, but, at least for the time being, allows downloading of material from online for private use, but lawmakers are looking to close this loophole.

Serious stuff, but if you recall The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers came down hard on YouTube back in October of 2006 ordering the removal of almost 30,000 illegally uploaded files from the site.

Read more details at Anime News Network: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-05-09/3-arrested-in-japan-for-spreading-anime-via-share-program

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