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Japan Makes Linking Illegal Material Illegal
Once&FutureRocketman writes "According to this article, a Japanese court has handed down a decision that make it a crime to link to a page that contains illegal material. I don't think this crowd needs me to elaborate on the potential ramifications of this decision. " Update: 04/21 12:10 by CT : Ooops, this is a duplicate of
an earlier article. I'm leaving it up 'cuz there's already a ton of comments.
The WTO will strike Japan's law down as an unecessary hindrance to porn-producing economies like California and Hong Kong.
Thank God for the WTO, eh?
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
For instance, what do you do in the US if someone in Russia decides to ignore copyright?
Is it fair?
No.
Can you stop it?
..?
Cheers,
Ben
My usual seat in the cluetrain is at A HREF="http://pub4.ezboard.com/biwethey.ht
This is stupid as the linking site has no control over the content of the linked site. It might be ok when the link is created but not later.
Ok so if I find a japanese site linking to some legitimate stuff I have. All I have to do is move some stuff around stick in a how to make a bomb page and blamo the japanese site is now illegal.
Lets say I know a guy named Bob. I've only known Bob as a nice guy, though I don't know him well. I believe that Bob is a capable handy-person. A friend needs a TV antenna installed, so I send them to Bob. Unbeknownst to me, Bob offers to hook up my friend to illegal cable at the same time. My friend accepts, but only tells me that Bob was really helpful. I now send all my reception-challenged friends to Bob. One day, the FCC (or whoever) come down hard on Bob and he's jailed - then I'm similarly charged with aiding and abetting (or whatever), simply because I helped people find Bob. Am I ignorant of Bob's activities? You bet. Am I ignorant of the Law? Hell, no.
So Japan is now holdling people responsible for other's actions based on whether a third party believes that the first knows everything the second is doing. Even describing it is hard! Search engines are the obvious losers, because they now have to prove that the system is totally automated, or whole companies risk going directly to jail. What about the "Submit your link" sites like that FFA crap?
Sure, this instance looks pretty cut and dried, even the journalist is willing to openly agree, but a de-pixelating tool is basically just a very intelligent sharpening tool. Thus Adobe with their Photoshop program are half way to being convicted in Japan - lets hope they don't have a search engine box on their web site...
If what's being linked to isn't illegal in the country it's in, is it still illegal to link to it from Japan where it is illegal? I don't know how they're going to enforce this one...
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Just to explain a few things here:
1) The guy was busted not only for linking to pornographic sites, but also for providing software that he had written that allows people to remove the "mosaic" used on the pr0n.
2) Japanese courts are a little different to American courts - for a start, they're not quite so concerned about "setting precendents" for future judgements.
3) In Japan, if you're busted for something, you're convicted. The conviction rate here is around 96%, so if the police take the trouble of arresting you, it generally means the court is gonna find you guilty, no matter what arguments your lawyer makes.
4) It's pretty clear that the guy was aiding and abetting; it just happens that the form of the abetting was links to other HPs. In the States, that would probably get you off; in Japan, it's nothing more than a detail. The judge has not made a judgement regarding linking to other sites; he's made a judgement about this guy's culpability.
BTW: I don't actually support this judgement (for one thing, I've used the guy's software (FL-Mask) and it's pretty cool), but once you get into a Japanese courtroom, not even God can save your ass if the judge thinks you're guilty.
Hmm. The way the decision was worded makes that unclear - strictly speaking the links site _owner_ was committing a crime, but the website itself isn't necessarily illegal. However, the reason the judge gave for convicting makes it likely that any site with external links will be illegal.
The worst part is that the person putting up the link doesn't have to be aware of the illegal nature of the material to be committing a crime. This creates two problems
Expect some changes to this ruling, to address these issues, if the Japanese legal system has any concept of justice or fairness.
Shouldnt they just be going after the publisher? After all, they are the ones that possess and serve up the offending materials in the first place. Cracking down on everyone else is like stomping on ants coming out of the anthill. Sure you wind up with some dead ants, but you never address the real problem. So what if the links make it easier for people to find the offending material? It also makes it easier for the authorities to find the original publisher. Cut off the head and the body dies. Don't waste your time arresting people who have not actually published illegal materials.
The era of governments controlling access to information is over. Look at the US. We have some really nasty drug laws. Enforcement of these laws has been pretty swift and severe, and an increasingly large number of people have been incarcerated. Has this really stopped the drug cartels from muling tons of the stuff northward every day? Hell no! I still have to walk by people selling dope just to get to the 7-11 that gets robbed weekly so people can buy their next fix.
You know what? Information is a lot more slippery than drugs. It has no mass, no odor, and can travel at the speed of light. It can be hidden or disguised to a mathematical near certainty. You only need one server to get the message out, not 300 mules with condoms full of coke in their stomachs. Once it is distributed, it can be replicated endlessly by the end user.
You want to stop this? You think you can? The technical solutions will rise up and cut away at your authority permanently. Your best shot is being as permissive as possible, and then crucifying the publishers when appropriate. Getting all draconian will only drive it to the underground. You know, the underground of MILLIONS ala Napster. The tighter you grip at the information the more it will slip through your fingers. Wake up and start realizing what is going on here. We have the playbook for the 21st century and we can put your ass on the bench.
-BW
Therefore linking to a site that links to a site containing illegal material is also illegal.
And since we all know you can reach anywhere on the web with 9 hops, the whole WWW is now illegal in Japan.
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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Buying/posessing cocaine is illegal. If you come to me looking for some nose garbage, and I say 'yeah. Go two doors down and ask for Rodney, he'll hook you up.' then technically, I *AM* committing a crime. I am aiding in the commission of a crime.
If trafficking in a certain type of material is illegal, and you provide people with information as to how to obtain that material, then you are committing a crime. The proper response, in the eyes of the law, is to say 'Sir, that material is illegal. I cannot help you to obtain it.'.
The article says: The court's ruling means that if somebody creates a Web page that includes a link to another page, and if that other page is in violation of the law, then the person who creates the link can be charged with aiding and abetting the crime. This is regardless of whether or not they are aware of the illegality of the page they linked to.
What does this mean for search engines/portals that operate in Japan, like Yahoo Japan? Do they have to check each site to make sure that it is not illegal under Japanese law? If someone changes their site so that it includes illegal material, after the link has already been up for a while, will Yahoo Japan be liable?
I hope this precedent isn't adopted elsewere.
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Life is exciting, isn't it?
The DMCA--for corporations, the best copyright law money can buy.
Firstly,
/. The person here was making software that allowed people to view pornographic material. This was done by removing the masking done on web-sites to censor out the explicit part of images.
The personal opinion of this journalist is that the judge has made an extremely appropriate decision.
You gotta love objective journalism.
Anyway, I believe that this is not as bad as it seemed when I read the blurb on
This is clearly software designed against the 'spirit' of the anti-pornography laws Japan seems to have. This person is a citizen of Japan, and is therefore subject to their laws. He is also making money (it was shareware, which means you have to register, at a cost). IANAL, but if I were a judge in this case, I would find him guilty of SOMETHING for so doing things which so clearly violate the spirit of the laws Japan has made. (whether those laws are good or not is a seperate debate...)
I am not saying that this decision, or indeed these laws are not something to get concerned about. This also does set legal precident that most of us would shudder over. However, this was a direct link, to an illegal site, by a person who was doing pseudo-legal activity himself. The various posts of 'now the whole net is illegal!' are extremely over-reactionary in this case.
With regards to Smith & Wesson, I personally believe yes, but enough people feel otherwise to prevent it from going through. Not too many people who commit armed robberies (with guns) are capable of manufacturing their own weapons. An armed individual with a knife or baseball bat can be disarmed without casualties many times more often than a gunman.
Kiddie porn. For all the millions of time this gets mentioned, it isn't a major problem. Besides - you seem to like guns by your tone. If one in ten thousand guns is used for a crime (I'm sure it's much higher), one in ten million cameras is used for child porn.
Finally, DeCSS. You seem to be making many incorrect asumptions about me, but I will give you the benefit of doubt and assume you understand that DeCSS allows the playing of DVDs, and that before it was released, bit-for-bit copies of DVDs could be made. That it is truly so hard for someone to find a lawyer who will go in and provide this fact and end the controversy related to it, shocks me. That DeCSS may or may not be illegal because it goes around the DVD consortium's player lisencing is another matter, and is the core of the matter.
Back to the numbers game, though. With Napster, it is more likely a ten thousand to one ratio of illegal to legal mp3s. To argue otherwise is silly.
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If a tree falls on an anonymous coward yelling 'first post' in the forest, does anybody hear?
It's also illegal to sell used video tapes and video games in Japan, so, basically, I think it is more or less the kind of corporate Hell the Multinationals want to turn the US into. We're still ahead of Japan in this area, our corrupt, unethically pro-corporate government still takes baby steps toward destroying our freedom... (See Article) where it seems the Japanese government already thinks freedom is for corporations and the government, not people.
I feel sorry for the citizens of Japan, who produce some of my favorite creative works, that they have to live under such an evil government.
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
It seems to me that, in theory, "illegal" material should not be on the internet (again, in theory, that does not mean in the real world). In a sense, linking to another's site is a form of distributing that material, thus illegal. It seems to me that this descision is not the problem, but rather the underlying laws. Perhaps we should instead aim our hostilities at the Japaneese laws that outlaw pornography.
note: this is honestly not meant as a troll or flamebait; if you think I am wrong (which I very well could be), please try to explain why in a rational and polite fashion -- I don't swear at you, I would like the same curtiousy (pardon my poor spelling)
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Vikhozhu odin ya na darogu;
Skvoz' tuman kremnisti put' blectit;
Noch' tikha. Pystinya vnemlet bogu,
Rhapsody in Numbers
Does this rulling apply to deep linking, or only the first tier of links? If it's deep linking, then i can see a large number of .jp sites disapearing overnight.
First the Dr Godfrey / Demon thing in the UK, now this. I just seriously hope this doesn't become a world-wide trend.
Syllable : It's an Operating System
what about yahoo.co.jp? I found a page linking to a site hosting illegal CSS info and DVD linux drivers from Yahoo. (http://search.yahoo.co.jp/bin/search?p=d ecss) Does this mean that search engines are all illegal in Japan?
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
Happy 4/20, everyone!
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?