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Winny P2P Software Creator Arrested
News for nerds writes "The author of Winny, the Japanese P2P software with encrypted networking capability, similar to Freenet, has been today officially arrested for abetment of copyright violation, after the raid in the last December. He started its development in May 2002 and occasionally appeared on the web forum 2ch with his anonymous codename "47", but today turned out to be an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Tokyo in his 30s. Winny was so efficient and popular that it generated problems even at the Japanese police and the GSDF.
As the Japanese police is the most advanced among the world in pulling P2P into criminal cases, outcry of users in Japan is expected."
... Black & Decker has been charged as an accomplice to many murders committed with their tools.
<sigh> I guess I won't bother trying to write any decent software then, if the possibility exists that I'm to be arrested for it. What would the point be?
--- We are not in the 8th dimension. We are over New Jersey.
I don't understand, does this mean that if I develop a really great and cheap duffelbag that I can be arrested if it's used by a bank robber?
Why not sue the computer manufacturers for abatement as well? There are any great uses for P2P, it is a great way to distribute music and video you have created, and I have distributed many animated shorts I have worked on via bit torrent etc...
How long will it be before someone sues the makers of a web browser, FTP, or IRC app for 'copyright abatement'?
His arrest is controversial since there was no mention that he participated in sharing files, only for writing (and updating -- an argument used by the police that his act was deliberate) the software that enabled file-sharing.
I think my RIAA boycot just became a boycot of all copyrighted material*. I will never pay for a license to use again. No movie theaters, video game rentals, the works... until someone fixes this nonsense.
Arresting scientists crosses the line. I wouldn't feel right supplying the cartells that make this possible.
* = That doesn't permit redistribution.
What's disgusting about this Winny thing is that Kyoto Police Department thinks the development of Winny itself is not criminal, but 47's attitude against the copyright law is. 47 had basically said on 2ch that the copyright law must be largely restructured to reflect the digital era and that's a part of the reasons why he wrote Winny.
Japanese constitution certainly ensures freedom of speech and thoughts, but it sounds like KPD is a thought police.
so what the hell were these cops doing with this shady anonymous file-sharing tool on their hardware anyway - after all, there are no legal uses for this type of application, no?
The Japanese cops have no-one but themselves to blame there. If someone in the prefecture is using this software to download copyrighted works, then it is time to clean up their own house first.. Same goes for the military. Security is your fucking job, fools!
Even if the coppers were using an installation of Whinny to keep an eye on what's moving about on it, it does beg one question:
If an organisation keeps important and sensitive documents on a windows box running shady p2p warez-sharing apps, do you think that they should be trusted with such documents?
I reckon this is just sour grapes because the chief of police picked up a virus while downloading pr0n...
The high conviction rate comes primarily from the way job performance and opportunities for advancement happen in the Japanese law enforcement/legal system.
At the level of the individual officer, your job performance is how many "good" arrests you make (those that lead to convictions), and how many "bad" arrests you make (those that do not lead to a conviction). Making a bad arrest is essentially a career-killer. So, they are very careful to only arrest those against whom they have a watertight case. Somewhat more negatively, anyone with enough political influence that they *might* be able to get off won't be arrested at all. Organized crime figures are essentially immune to investigation from lower-level law enforcement--they can't get a conviction, so they don't even bother. Most negatively is what happens when a truly innocent party is arrested. There is intense pressure to build a case regardless of actual guilt or innocence. What percentage of innocent suspects are railroaded by the police is unknown, although probably not too high.
At the next level is the prosecution. Again, convictions are good, and failed attempts at prosecution==dead career. Additionally, as the parent post notes, there is a limited budget to bring about a prosecution. So, the prosecution ends up cherry-picking cases. Compounding the success rate is that (as elsewhere in the world) the police generally won't arrest anyone with the prosecuting attorney's OK. Again, this has the negative effect that "hard" cases aren't even considered, and there is the occasional attempt to railroad an innocent suspect.
At the last level is the judiciary. At this point, potential cases have been through two very stringent filters. The trial is almost unnecessary at this point, but judges do occassionally acquit. As the parent post notes, judges who acquit end up with worse careers. The analysis says this isn't based on acquitting the innocent, but to acquitting on "reasons of statutory or constitutional interpretation, often in politically charged cases." However, it seems that nearly any case with an acquittal is "polically charged" since the prosecution will use politics to their advantage in a weaker case.
Overall, the Japanese criminal legal system has some serious problems. Most of the problems come from the inability or lack of desire to attempt any "hard" or "weak" cases, but some comes from aggressively pushing a case which shouldn't have been brought in the first place. On the other hand, it mosly works. Overall crime and incarceration rates are low, and success is the hardes metric against which to argue. Still doesn't mean that the Winny author has a snowballs chance of getting off.