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Japanese Ruling Against Winny Dev Overturned On Appeal
Joren writes "In Japan, in a case that has been five years running, the Osaka High Court on Thursday overturned a lower court ruling that had convicted and fined the developer of controversial file-sharing software Winny of assisting violations of the Copyright Law. Originally charged in 2004, Isamu Kaneko, 39, a former research assistant at the University of Tokyo, was declared not guilty, and will not be required to pay a 1.5 million yen fine levied by a December 2006 Kyoto District Court ruling. 'Merely being aware of the possibility that the software could be abused does not constitute a crime of aiding violations of the law, and the court cannot accept that the defendant supplied the software solely to be used for copyright violations,' presiding judge Masazo Ogura said. Furthermore, in siding with the defense, the appeal ruling stated that 'Anonymity is not something to be looked on as illegal, and it is not something that applies specifically to copyright violations. The technical value of the software is neutral.'"
1,500,000 yen is about equal to $16,000 US.
No penguins were harmed in the making of this post.
I first read this as "Japanese Ruling Against Whiny Dev Overturned On Appeal" and immediately thought "well no wonder they ruled against him. Damn I hate whiny people!
I'm somewhat confused. The ruling was in 2006? Why are we hearing about this now?
Am I misunderstanding the part that says: "will not be required to pay a 1.5 million yen fine levied by a December 2006 Kyoto District Court ruling."?
This is the criminal case. Anywhere else where there is a P2P related case, they are usually civil, like a record label suing for damages. Only in Japan would the cops take you away in cuffs based on a tip from Sony Records. Well, maybe apart from if you were selling pirated DVDs on Hollywood Blvd...
Of course, this is truly absurd. If he was found guilty, they might as well arrest the inventor of every device that allows data to transfer while retaining the original. Copiers, recorders, VCRs, CDRs, DVDs... They have all been extensively utilized for criminally liable copyright infringing behavior, and surely the inventors would have had a slight clue about their use cases.
It's about time people are held responsible for what their legitimate software does. I'm actually quite curious though. Does the judge really have sense, or is he tired of hearing about cases like this?
"Chance favors only the prepared mind." -Archimedes
He was actually caught uploading copyrighted material from his Winny client.
1,500,000 yen is about equal to $16,000 US.
Or in this case, zero.
Seriously, this represents a fairly substantial judicial bitch-slap of the lower court. The ruling not only rebukes the plaintiff but also the court that bought their theory.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
You're just upset because you thought it was code for Penis2Penis, you flaming faggot sodomite.
You don't happen to be related to a cartoon version of Betty White do you?
Betty White: If you like great PBS programs like "Do Shut Up" and "Shut Your Gob" you'll want to support our pledge drive. If you watch even one second of PBS and don't contribute, you're a theif, a common theif! PBS Guy: Okay, take it easy, Betty. Betty: Sorry, but these theives make me so mad. You know who you are.... thieves!
The difference of course being that the device that you list have abundant uses *other* criminally liable copyright infringing behavior. While P2P software reminds me of the brick of grape solids and sugars sold during prohibition with the label "warning, do not ferment, bottle, and age the product resulting from dissolving this item in water. Doing so will result in producing an illegal alcoholic beverage". ("Nudge, nudge, wink, wink" comes along decades later, but the manufacturers of the product would surely have understood the concept. As surely as the developers of P2P software do.)
Admit it. You're all a bunch of thieves.
So sad, even in Japan, home of Sony root kits and Columbia records, they just can't buy your limp dick pin headed stone aged neanderthal moronic line of crap. Soon you uptight dweebs will all die off and we won't need to bicker over 8 track tapes and oil paintings and old Beatles 45's. Try a reasonable grasp of reality if you expect consensus from the courts. Don't pay goons for tunes.
digg... errr, sorry... slashdot is becoming more boring a predictable. very little of the posts are informative any longer despite what the mods say.
and it's funny that the political stories have come to a near stop even though all the legislation that supposedly made the united states a nazi nation is still in place. i guess the good fight doesn't mean shit when your boy is in office but suddenly will become a problem again when someone you don't like takes the throne.
did someone say fearmongering?
no contractors are the only thieves. No one else ever stole anything. Apparently.
Just read about it in the newspaper. (Daily Yomiuri, for me.)
Unfortunately, the on-line version leaves off a few things.
For instance, Kaneko's lawyer's pointed out that auto manufacturers would not "be punished if speeding became rampant." (Reported in the print news.)
Also, the on-line version doesn't mention that, "A revised Copyright Law that prohibits users from downloading such peer-to-peer file sharing software will come into force in January." (The last line of the print article.)
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
First, let me just say: YATTA!. With that out of my system.. I, for one, am impressed by this turn of events! Was this appeal processed high enough in the Japanese court system to set precedence for similar cases in the future?
It doesn't really come as a surprise that this crap isn't considered passable in Japan though. Don't the Japanese people generally pride themselves in being sensible, logic folk? They have the worlds strongest work morale, longest life expectancy and best quality of life for the elderly. They are a huge player in the world of economy despite being a tiny island with very little to work with in the way of traditional valuable resources (oil, coal, etc.). Why should they start letting Sony et al harass their people? IKKEEEE, JAPANESE JUDGE-SAMA!
That being said, I am a "thief". I am aware that downloading something gives the creator no income and I do believe that content creators should make money if they make something people like. However, I never buy an album simply because I know that the artist who actually did the work gets a meager percent or two of the money I spend on his stuff while the record store and certain associations get all the rest.
A carpenter might bill you $100 an hour and take home $35 (35%) with his employer claiming the rest for insurance, sick-leave and all the management and responsibility the carpenter is freed from. An album costs about $30 and the artist gets about $1-2 for each album sold (about 3-4%). Until this changes, until artists truly open their eyes to the fact that they can make the same money without the backing of a record company while charging one hell of a lot less for their works, I will not spend my money lining the pockets of RIAA/MPAA executives!
Note, I do enjoy a good concert, be it a local band or Metallica, and I go to the movies whenever something seemingly worthwhile comes along. Also, I do buy movies I really like (like the Terminator movies, LotR Extended Editions, The Matrix, a few Jackie Chan movies, Marvel superhero movies, etc.). I just don't want to spend a crapload of money on a worthless plastic disk that I cannot even copy for personal use or put on my mp3 player, with no way of knowing that I like all the content on the disk AND knowing the artist gets next to nothing for my purchase.
Just read about it in the newspaper. (Daily Yomiuri, for me.)
Unfortunately, the on-line version leaves off a few things.
For instance, Kaneko's lawyer's pointed out that auto manufacturers would not "be punished if speeding became rampant." (Reported in the print news.)
Also, the on-line version doesn't mention that, "A revised Copyright Law that prohibits users from downloading such peer-to-peer file sharing software will come into force in January." (The last line of the print article.)
I think the print version of the Yomiuri may have been slightly off on that point... the sources I have seem to say the law is dealing with copyrighted works, not programs that can be used to download them. Copyright act amended
Japan Strengthens Copyright Law Basically, the new legal ground seems to be that downloading works protected by copyright without permission is now officially a crime, but they have to prove the defendent knew the file was not distributed legally. Up until now, prosecution has been mostly (if not completely?) uploaders. Nothing is being said about downloading the software itself.
If you want it from the original source, and you can read Japanese, this link has the text of the bill itself in PDF format. I have not translated it so I can't verify whether the English news sources are correct in their interpretation or not.
-- Joren
And assumed this was another story about jwz.
Kudos to the high court.
Chop sticks can feed people, or be poked in people's eyes. Chop sticks don't violate laws, people violate laws. Technology is neutral.
Hope is the currency of fools
Winny was interesting as it was hard to trace.
Not like the "log in real time" p2p ip and file name in plain text.
Like with Skype and the German gov, someone may have found a way in?
Did a contracted gov developer find the hole?
Was a deal done?
All the chat about MS developer tools, gov tracking and the source code- stops?
Like this Winny becomes p2p history rather than a tech cause celeb in court.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
"A revised Copyright Law that prohibits users from downloading such peer-to-peer file sharing software will come into force in January."
I'm curious how they define the type(s) of software that are illegal. I don't need my door kicked in by federal marshalls executing an extradition order because an FTP client I downloaded happened to come from a Japanese server...
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
Since it fostered a community of covert P2P in Japan. Winny's successor, Share, and its successor, Perfect Dark, are both programs that use Freenet-like encryption and ensure anonymity of the user. IIRC the dev only posts new versions on Freenet and Share to begin with.
While the encryption isn't perfect, it is much more secure than torrents; with Share or Perfect Dark you can't even reliably tell who uploaded or downloaded what and when.
Read the outline and looked at the other five PDFs. It appears that, in addition to the outline (1251916_1_3), we have a statement of goals (1251916_2_3), a summary of changes (1251916_3_3), a statement of reasoning (1251916_4_3), a side-by-side comparison (1251916_5_3) (in vertical text, hey), and a copy of the affect elements of the current law (1251916_6_1) (not real sure about the last one).
I've read the outline. The rest of this is going to take a little time to digest (80 pages).
The outline, at any rate, doesn't indicate anything that would directly make downloading file sharing software illegal.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
Hmm... most of the Linux distros have some or other p2p software installed. Will downloading fedora or debian become illegal in Japan after jan? Btw, does the law make distributing them on a CD illegal? :)
I'm hoping to have some time to read the links joren posted, so I can analyze the situation properly.
It looks like there is specific legal language forbidding setting up a manufacturing process to illegally replicate copyrighted works, and this law would explicitly extend that to the internet and to digital copying without specific media.
Many people assume that it is obvious that file sharing programs must be nothing more than an effective manufacturing process for materials that (under current law) are now automatically under copyright. And since file sharing programs don't provide a way to ask permission to copy, it would all seem to be quit illicit.
I have read enough of it to see that appropriate exceptions for backup and certain other legitimate purposes are in place. So I'm pretty sure that certain people who want to profit on even advertising themselves will find that the law doesn't have nearly the effect that they hope.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
Since he's basically free and clear, Kaneko could do the bug patching necessary to staunch the viruses that ran rampant on the Winny network and forced many users to migrate to Share and Perfect Dark.
Since he would be fixing known bugs that reduce computer security, they would have a hard time pining copyright violations again on him, provided there are some double jeopardy conviction protections.
I also wonder if there would be any motivation to opensource the code now...