Slashdot Mirror
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."
Should be arrested for naming it whinny.
You know you were thinking the same thing.
ABC news
This isn't the first time.
Thanks
... 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'?
From pario (675744) in a previous article:
[quote]
Since Winny is pretty much unknown outside Japan, here is some background information for slashdot readers: Winny is a P2P file sharing program created by a Japanese programmer, who still remains anonymous to this day. It came out two years ago as an attempt to share copyright-protected materials "safely" when somebody was arrested for using another P2P program (WinMX). Since the application was extremely well designed and almost anything is available on its network, from movies to software, it has become immensely popular in Japan, so much so that there are a dozen book available on how to use it and network traffic in the country was down 20% after the news of the arrest broke. As for the reasons why the police was able to identify those two people who were arrested, they used an extra bulletin board feature, which does not guarantee anonymity unlike its file transfer feature, to distribute a list of warez videos. Therefore, I don't think this news has anything to do with the validity of Freenet's technology, or with that of Winny's for that matter.
[/quote]
Well, maybe I didn`t quite get it right, but in what way exactly is what he`s done illegal? Or is it just because he made it difficult for them to crack the network he`d created that they wanted even more to "crack him", as an example? Believe you me, maybe that will be the start of a new row of attacks from RIAA and MPAA towards program creators.
We have been saying that the amount of non-infringing use MUST increase if anonymity and P2P is to remain legal.
But nobody has any viable solutions.
So you're saying that because software is used in a certain way, the author of said software is guilty of the same crime by implication?
...
In that case, better lock up everyone who contributed to the design and development of TCP/IP right now!
And I'm sure "the terrorists" have used MS software at some point as well
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.
He should be arrested as well. I mean c'mon! Who haven't had a private FTP-account long before the P2P-concept were even thought of? Or Gopher? I am sure some copyrighted literature has been made availble by gopher!
If creating technology that allows material to be pirated is a crime, I suggest all manufaturers of CD-R(W)s, DVD+-R(W) with associated burnes, harddisks, floppys, floppydrives, tapes, tapeplayers, dats, lossy as well as non-lossy data-compression technologies, not to mention microphones and every single net-capable electronic device be arrested pronto.
After all they're facilitating copyright infringement. Even digitally one might add for most of them!
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
No, I'm not bitter about this coming up after having decided to move to Japan. sigh...
(Well, to be fair, Japan's copyright law does have a clause allowing personal copies, which is recognized as valid by pretty much everybody, and which even the local press is mentioning in their articles on this, like this one. But they also have a DMCA-like clause that pretty much negates its effect for encrypted stuff.)
Winny developer to arrest the Kyoto headquarters of police, 30 generation Tokyo University assistant domestic beginnings
Assuming that file sharing software "Winny" of the personal computer which exchanges the data of the popularity movie and hit tune etc. () by the fact that it develops, the illegal copy of the movie and music was made easy the Kyoto headquarters of police high-tech crime measure room and five provision stations, in doubt of the Copyright Act violation one help, requested option accompanying from Tokyo large assistant of 30 generations of the Tokyo residence even in 10th morning, set the policy of arresting. As for , being free on Internet, the program software which is open. As for questioning the software developer to "the one help" of the Copyright Act violation the domestic beginning. Stand case in the criminal incident of the joint ownership software developer almost there is no example even in the foreign country.
When the infringement of copyright which worldwide used the file sharing software has swaggered although you feel concern the administration of justice judgement even internationally for the illegal characteristic of the file sharing software has divided, it may call discussion centering on propriety.
That the file sharing software where with investigation of prefecture police/policing, as for Tokyo University assistant, anonymous characteristic is higher than past, is difficult to be exposed by the police opening will be sent plan. The major bulletin board of Internet with "2 don't you think? as development program is announced the ", 2002 May, it released the software of to itself home page. Using , as for Tokyo University assistant with no permission, the doubt which makes exchanging the data which infringes the copyright of the movie and the game etc. easy has in the literary work authority e.g., the salesman of Gunma prefecture (41) the inside = and others of the trial releases the data of the popularity movie to the many and unspecified persons person illegal with crime of = Copyright Act violation.
In addition, as for prefecture police/policing the policy of starting the forcing investigation of several places such as Tokyo University graduate school information science and engineering type postgraduate course even on the 10th.
Tokyo University assistant is special information processing engineering. It is called "47 people" with the net bulletin board, "the file sharing software which gradually can actualize anonymous characteristic appears and does not change the concept regarding present copyright the expectation which is stopped obtaining. It probably is about to try boosting the flow by your?", and so on with, development intention of had been explained.
* Infringement of copyright, the judgement which cracks internationally
The kitchen knife also and, can also be able cut the vegetable damage the person. Those where you accuse of a crime to the person are just the execution doer who kills and wounds. The handgun the person other than killing and wounding, in Japan the possession and production is prohibited with purpose. The Kyoto headquarters of police this time, the developer of the communication software, as for with "one help" of the Copyright Act violation it finishes stepping on in stand case, in the same software net society, it is equal to the development "of the handgun", that you probably can say that it judged.
As for , as for the data which is exchanged the necessity for the user to register to the provider without, it is entirely encoded. As for the prefecture police/policing high-tech investigation room, Tokyo large assistant who was developed the major bulletin board of Internet to "2 don't you think? from the speech
This guy is screwed! Japan has a conviction rate of over 90%. Why? I dunno, check this: (http://econwpa.wustl.edu/eprints/le/papers/9907/9 907001.abs)
Slashdot posts story about 2ch. Next story is about 2ch user "47" being arrested. Coincidence? I THINK NOT! :)
Maybe not US anymore, but some place where writting multi-purpose software that protects privacy is not a crime. Japan's loss, that country's win. I just hope he doesn't have to spend long time in jail first.
Was this software built soley and intentionally for sharing copyrighted works? If not, this is a frightening story. I've written software that would now be called "P2P". Then, nine years ago, it was called a distributed system (as opposed to client/server). The problem is, it could easily be used for sharing copyrighted works, although back then that use didn't occur to anyone.
So, does intent matter any more and how does it apply to this case - or can we expect anyone involved in (for example) the design of TCP/IP to be hauled into jail? It's the logical next step.
Well Lindows for one offers a discount for their os when downloaded via BitTorrent.
Also Blizzard Interactive should be offering game patches via BT as well. (couldn't bother to find the sources but you get the idea).
Kazaa had announced an agrement a few months ago to distribute short films via it's network.
A french movie producer recently introduced a "fake" bootleg version of it's movie on all p2p networks. What it was in fact was a Sort of Making of with exclusive interviewa from the actors. The tone was pretty much "you should rather support the movie by going to the theatre etc.." Was a great success from what I heard.
But yeah I agree totally with you. P2p networks are 99% used in an illegal way.
Yet philosophically I adhere to the idea of a self maintained network, not server reliant and thus not censurable.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
The story of this arrest was posted in Slashdot Japan. And there are a lot of comments.
Notice: The article and comments are only in Japanese.
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Slashdot Japan
http://slashdot.jp/
snowy
http://slashdot.jp/~snowy/
I feel really sorry for this guy. I wonder if there is anything he can do to fight it? I havn't heard particularly favorable things of the japanese legal system. Winny was an excellant P2P program though. Anything you wanted, you could download, FAST. It was a great concept and would be interesting to see other P2P software take the same approach. Sharing was pretty much mandatory... but you couldn't see who you are sharing with, or what files they are downloading from you. But the ease of downloading is what truely amazes me the most. On a network like eDonkey, you can typically wait for hours before your download even starts, then have the download trickle across at 5kb/second. With winny it was INSANE. Downloads often started immediatly, and you normally get download speeds in the 20-50kb/sec range. It's entirely possible to download complete DVD ISOs in a day. And thats the reason it had to be shut down :|
...first of all, Winny is a Windows-only, closed-source program. While the author has taken some of the concepts from Freenet, none of the actual code. The BBS that caused them to be captured has no equal in Freenet, any BBS-like places you may find there is purely "userspace" running on top of Freenet.
Winny was designed to be very difficult to use outside Japan, not only was it exclusively in Japanese but it also refused to work on international systems with Japanese support (hint: You had to have japanese code pages by default, doable but not easy).
The network itself is still operational, but naturally there won't be any more development. Like Freenet, you could find pretty much anything there, but that didn't seem to bother the Japanese quite as much as the Western world, at least it was very popular.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
>He started its development in May 2002 and occasionally appeared on the web forum 2ch with his anonymous codename "47", ...
No.
His codename is "47-shi". The pronounce is "yon-jyu-nana-shi"
It means "Mr. 47" in Japanese.
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Slashdot Japan
http://slashdot.jp/
snowy
http://slashdot.jp/~snowy/
That's all he needs to say and he'll make himself rich by selling it. Well, at least rich enough to pay a good lawyer.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Hes been arrested for conspiracy to commit copyright violation (whatever that means) which i guess means "making something that we have decided is only for commiting criminal offences". Why boycott software??
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I am a post graduate student who is researching aspects of P2P software. Its a really fertile area for research that is now starting to get seriously damaged by the civil and criminal suits that are getting about these days. I know of one serious research group that has pulled their software, that wasn't even file sharing related, due to fears of being held accounatble for its use. I also have not released anything due to fears of retribution (and my stuff has bugger all to do with filesharing also).
I would like to extend my Masters research into a PhD but is it going to have a future for long enough? I hope that this will settle down and go the way of the fears of video tapes, PGP, cd burning, etc... But in the mean time research that will benefit ad hoc networking will suffer.
It will be a sad day if everything P2P is banned - I wonder if those companies with miss chat, dns, nntp, etc
he got the shaft.. from the Mainichi Daily News Japan: Winny has already stirred up considerable controversy within Japan this year. In March, a virus swept through the program, picking up investigation records from a Kyoto Prefectural Police officer's computer and whisking them around cyberspace. Other police documents and Self-Defense Force materials have also been spread across the Internet through Winny. Cops probably had a hard on for this guy ever since their investigations records ended up on Whinny..
We might actually have to go back to using Usenet and the streets of New York for our bootleg videos and music! How could we do that?
Easy. We could go to the streets of New York to download The Gangs of New York.
Alternatively, we could go to the gangs of New York to download The Streets of New York.
The article in japanese says that that's one of the reasons that guns are illegal in japan: can only be used to kill people.
47 wrote the software, and according to the comments on 2ch the police decided that the motives behind writing Winny were purely copyright infringement, so it is not considered as a knife which can be used for good means, but as a weapon which can only be used for crimes.
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.
Anyone but a hypocrite can tell you that most P2P apps are indeed made for trading copyrighted material, much like emulators are made for running copyrighted roms. Claiming that they have a lot of potentially non-infringing uses is just an excuse. Black & Decker tools are made for construction, and in 99.99% of cases they are used for construction work.
...is that according to it, computers should be outlawed. Yes, you heard me. Most every computer out there is a vechicle for copyright infringement of software, audio, movies, pr0n (which is also copyrighted), used to facilitate communication between people or such traffic and so on. Nevermind the millons of PCs that are spamming or infecting others, or anonymizing illegal traffic because they're open relays. All used for crime.
Same goes for everything running the network infrastructure. The Common Carrier status may protect them legally, but not in this context. They're all massively contrbuting to illegal acts. Right down to the computers running the Internet backbone itself.
Both private individuals and corporations typically have some form of violation, if nothing more than expired software they use anyway, or more users than they're licenced for, or being zombified spam/virus boxes.
Like P2P apps, computers in general have legitimate uses. But if you want to talk numbers, they too get drowned out by the fact that PEOPLE aren't law-obidient. That is neither the fault of computers nor P2P apps.
Welcome to general purpose computing, and general purpose communication. If the majority want to use it for something illegal, what do you do? There's simply no way short of crippling a PC into an appliance, limited to only do pre-defined tasks. If you can program it (even within a DRM-ridden sandbox), you can make it general purpose. And then you're back to square one.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
is KANEKO Isamu, 33, was relatively well-known in Japan as a talented 3D-programming programmer, too (though it's not known until today that he is the "47"). His personal homepage has many 3D-programming stuff, including flight simulator, realtime 3-D body model generator, PBO-FS(Prototype-Based Object File System), missile simulator, and realtime motion-generation by physics calculation. His academic concern was fast 3D physics calculation, network design, and OS design.
Where do you draw the line? It's a slippery slope. One of the most commonly used protocols by far for illegal copying is Microsoft Windows file-sharing (otherwise known as SMB). So by your reasoning, if we can hold the author of a p2p system liable, then we ABSOLUTELY MUST also hold Microsoft liable when it happens on their systems. Or do you have some magic, objective point at which you can draw the line and say "this file-sharing tool good, that one bad"? Sorry, but you have to either deem file-sharing tools ALL ILLEGAL, or ALL LEGAL. And yeah yeah I know that SMB is used in legal ways too, but so are all file-sharing tools.
Aw, c'mon.. you gotta admit, "Winny developer to arrest the Kyoto headquarters of police" is a heck of a lot funnier than what actually happened.
Or is it just because he made it difficult for them to crack the network he`d created that they wanted even more to "crack him", as an example?
That's the major theory currently doing the rounds in the media, but it's also been reported that when he released Winny, he gave as his reason for developing it "to demonstrate why current copyright laws are wrong and help to change them". While I think he has a valid point about copyright [uh oh, are they going to come after me now?], openly showing disrespect for the law isn't calculated to put you in law enforcement's good graces.
It also seems [Japanese] he's telling police that he "created Winny to foster copyright violations and destroy content companies who are bent only on legal action and don't try to find new business models to protect their copyrights". Take that as you will . . .
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.
Just for the record, the files that got spread seem to be the result of a virus sent over the Winny network that puts everything on the victim's computer up for sharing, so I doubt the author would get directly in trouble for that.
Thanks, it's good to see someone else who found the machine "translation" more amusing and interesting than yet another 'shocking news: people are cracking down on piracy any way they can'. *yawn*. I've heard it a lot lately to be honest.
I particularly liked the line
> The kitchen knife also and, can also be able cut the vegetable damage the person.
Not sure that they would find it all that funny in Abu Ghraib though, poor buggers.
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
It's funny in polish language "winny" means guilty :D
Weapons developers feel technical curiosity over the lethalness and strategic usability of their weapons.
Filesharing software developers feel technical curiosity over the efficiency and anonymity of their software.
How odd that the latter should be executed in the name of the law, while the former reaps fantastic wealth from military demand.
The grandparent is speculating that decidedly most of the traffic through P2P applications is used to facilitate copyright infringement of movies, music, and games. Compared to the internet at large, this is not a lot of tcp/ip traffic, and there should be some way of eliminating illegal uses of the programs.
Also, you were quick to put words into his mouth. He never specifically stated that P2P application writers should be arrested, nor really even implied it.
I'm looking to get rich. I've got steps #2 (????) and #3 (PROFIT!) planned out, but am having trouble coming up with #1.
This disturbs me for one very obvious reason.
BytesTemplar.com
> Police said Kaneko was arrested because Winny
> allowed a 41-year-old man from Takasaki and 19-year-old
> from Matsuyama to illegally download pirated
> games and movies from the Internet,
So... arrest IE, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, WSFTP creators...
help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am
You just used "download" as a synonym for "illegally obtain". We have a job offer for you, please send your CV/resume immediately.
Best regards,
the Record Industry Association of America.
Free as in mason.
What is the highest source of traffic through tcp/ip?
Porn.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
I can specifically decline to accept the GPL, and my additional rights to the software terminate at that point. However, this still permits me to use the software that I have legitimately acquired.
The Windows Freenet installer will not let me past the GPL licence screen until I click "I agree".
You can read the news in English here.
Mind Booster Noori
Hey! A non-moron replied! P2P apps show the hypocritical bullshit that Slashdot is infested with. The EXACT SAME PEOPLE will complain all day and all night about POSSIBLE abuses of RFID tags and how they should be outlawed because MAYBE someone will invade their privacy and do something illegal, then they'll turn around and defend P2P to the death, despite about 95% of all P2P traffic being ILLEGALLY traded items. The bullshit part is that they'll argue how you can't condemn a technology because of possible misuse, then they'll go and do exactly that with RFID.
It's always been accepted that the posession and/or use of items that are used almost entirely for criminal purposes can be restricted. Brass knuckles, lockpicks, radar detectors, and other things have been restricted in some way practically everywhere. If P2P software developers don't get their shit together and come up with ways to get the illegal shit off their networks, the exact same thing will happen to them. The continued facilitation of LARGE-SCALE piracy does absolutely nobody any good.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
Wow, +5, Insightful for that.
What you're failing to understand is that you can't directly compare the two things that you're comparing, RFID and P2P. I don't like RFID because if it becomes widespread I will be forced to use it in some way, and by using it I can end up placing my privacy in jeopardy, and depending on what that private information is and who detects it, the danger may even extend to my physical person.
On the other hand, nobody is going to force me to put a P2P program on my computer and use it to do illegal things. Even if I do use it legally or illegally, it's not going to cause privacy damage to any individual who doesn't also choose to install and use a P2P program.
Also, the potential for RFID to be abused against individuals or groups by other indivuduals or the government is quite high. The "abuse" of P2P systems isn't on the same level at all. The "victim" of P2P abuse is the content holder, and the only thing lost by the content holders is a theoretical potential sale. That's assuming that the copied content was even available to be purchased. Nothing physical has been stolen when copyright is violated. The privacy and safety of individuals is not violated by P2P file sharing. With RFID, both privacy and safety could potentially be violated.
By the way, copyright violation by individuals in a not-for-profit fashion usually falls under civil laws, not criminal laws. I defy you to name any computer application that can be said to be used "almost entirely for criminal purposes". Software doesn't go around killing people or stealing physical objects or causing physical harm. Even if you put it in the context of computer crimes, the software that is used to hack into other computers is often the same software that computer people use to administrate or secure their own computers. What you're talking about is like wanting to ban crowbars because suddenly a lot of them are being used to commit robberies and murders.
And finally, it hasn't "always been accepted" that certain objects should be banned because people use them "almost entirely" for criminal purposes. I don'te accept it. I think it's bogus that brass knuckles, lockpicks, radar detectors (are those illegal now?) and other things should be illegal. I notice the crime rate hasn't gone down after the banning of those objects. Might that be because banning the objects fails to address the reasons for the actions of the persons who go ahead and commit the same crimes some other way?
No object should ever be banned unless it can somehow by its very nature cause harm to others without any human action being applied. It is the action that is the crime, and to keep the crime from happening you have to get to the source of why the person decided to cause the action to occur. I know, we aren't real big on prevention here in 'Merc-uh.
Getting back to P2P, do you have some answer for all the legitimate file sharers who will be banging on your door after you ban P2P software, asking you why in the name of Pete they are no longer allowed to choose to share anything they own the copyright for? The number of people abusing the system is meaningless, except to give you an indicator that there is some reason for these copyright violations that needs to be addressed. Banning the object is not the answer.
But go ahead and do it your way. Ban P2P software. Then you can go on your merry way, singing to yourself, "The Emporer does have clothes, the Emporer does have clothes!" Everyone will move to Freenet or its equivalent and completely ignore you. And if you try to ban Freenet and start arresting anyone who uses it (because 95% of the users are abusing the system, of course) you will sooner or later end up with a civil war on your hands, as the educated and rabidly freedom-loving minority realizes they have lost all freedom of expression and have no reason to continue allowing the current government to exist.
If a law were passed tomorrow