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Toshiba Employee Arrested For Selling Software To Break Copy Limits
JoshuaInNippon writes "A Toshiba employee in western Japan has been arrested on charges of copyright violations for selling software online that breaks copying limits on certain Japanese digital TV recording and playback devices. The software specifically overrides limits on a program called 'dubbing10,' which is used in devices sold by companies such as Sony, Sharp, and Panasonic. It is believed that the man generated thousands of dollars worth of earnings for himself by selling to at least 712 people, including one teenager who then resold the software to another 240 people. This is the first disclosed case in Japan of someone being arrested for selling such limit-removal software for digital TV recording. Since it sounds like he has already admitted to selling it (although he denies creating it), and due to the generally high conviction rate of those arrested by Japanese police, his future does not look so bright at the moment."
I wonder how the police cracked this case.
If there was mutual trust between customers and copyright holders this situation wouldn't exist. People are stealing because they know intuitively in their gut that they are being ripped off, see: The Public Domain. And copyright holders are failing to meet the needs of their customers - nobody wants digital restrictions yet they insist to maximize that little thing called profit. It will come back to bite them in the ass, it already has.
Shh.
IANAL, and certainly not a Japanese one, but I have to wonder what they would actually charge him with.
Arguably, since he denies writing the program, he violated the real author's copyright (though I would think that only the actual author could pursue legal action in that case).
Other than that... The closest US analogy I can think of would involve some variety of "theft of service" (or facilitating the same), somewhat like selling software to uncap your cable modem. But that doesn't really seem to fit, since the software only limits the end user's use of what they already have, not their use of content provided by the OEM companies. I can't even see it as facilitating copyright violation, unless Japanese law explicitly has a fair-use idea of "You can do this ten times before it counts"... Otherwise, what makes ten views okay but eleven a violation?
As the parent poster mentions, however, I don't really suppose any of this matters. Off to the gallows with this scofflaw! Hmm, does "interfering with corporate profitability" count as a capital punishment yet?
Not that there would be a market for de-crippling software, or that the jackboots would come down hard on someone who attempted to satisfy that market; but at the numbers given in TFA.
It mentions one sale, on CDR, of software and directions, for the equivalent of ~8USD. A download sale(to somebody who then resold a large number of copies) for ~6USD. Stated number of sales, over the year, is "at least 714".
That sounds like pretty mediocre money for taking on any significant legal risk(especially since he has had a steady job with Toshiba for 15 years now, this isn't some 15 year old, or a guy dealing drugs because he has zero job skills). Has there historically been virtually zero risk, and this guy just drew the short straw and got to be the leading edge of some new crackdown? Is he just not that sharp?
Japanese police have such high conviction rates because,
1. they do not follow western style of interrogation.
http://www.debito.org/policeinterrogations.html
There is no Miranda laws, lawyers, etc.
2. In Japan, if police charges you with something, the society believes that you must have done something. The Japanese culture is closer to "prove your innocence" than "prove your guilt".
3. The Japanese police historically does not bring up charges for people that they don't have evidence for. This results #2.
If Japan participates in ACTA and other international treaties then this could be a circumvention of encryption controls type of crime which would incur greater penalty than larceny or simple theft.
To the Law outside is there a difference of kind to manufacture lock picks vs to sell them vs being actually caught picking locks vs being searched and having one found on your person?
TFA: "Masumura is accused in two specific instances, one where he sold a CD-R to a man for 850 yen (~$8USD) and another where he sold a download to a teenager for 650 yen (~$6USD)"
I know it is disastrous trying to extrapolate meaningful conclusions from the details of this Examiner article -- but the wording of the article leads me to believe he's being arrested for selling the software.
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
Notice how the article reports that the suspect is a "Toshiba employee" even though his activities have nothing to do with Toshiba (as far as we know). That's how things work in Japan (and Asia in general) -- the company, relatives, etc. share some responsibility for an individual's actions simply by association.
Reminds me the first episode of Leverage this season. People who rob us blind, like the senator from alaska and bank executives and middle management, get of nearly scott free, while this guy, who made "thousands of dollars" is going to probably be nailed to the wall. It is like spending billions fighting street drug dealers, while letting the high level drug users off the hook.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I had somewhat assumed that Toshiba had created the "dubbing10" program that was being cracked. However I'm unable to find any sources that either confirm or deny that assumption.
Can anyone else find anything on it? Google doesn't come up with much other than various places in which it is used, but not where it was created.
It's not all bad. At least according to wiki, Japan has one of the lowest incarceration rates of the civilized world. The conviction rate may be high, but the sentencing is extremely lenient and the total number of convictions is low.
Commit a murder in Japan? Out in 10-15 years. Rape? 2-5 years. Etc. That's ridiculously lower than typical sentences in the U.S. for the same crime. Also, "acquaintance rape" is almost never prosecuted because a prosecutor won't bring a case forward unless they are certain of a conviction. (versus in the U.S., where people are imprisoned for decades based solely on the uncorroborated word of the victim) In the U.S., prosecutors fail to get a conviction about 30-40% of the time in trials, and a vastly higher percentage of the population is prosecuted.
Whether you're a criminal or not, it sounds like you have a higher chance of keeping your freedom in Japan. On the other hand, their society is far less tolerant of any sort of behavior that isn't the norm.
"due to the generally high conviction rate of those arrested by Japanese police"
I wonder if high conviction rates are a result of superior investigation techniques, whereby arrests are only made when the case evidence is already relatively overwhelming - or if it means that once you enter the interrogation room, you only come out once you plead guilty.
This is Japan, not the USA.
Rather a small point, but still very central to your argument.
I'm totally against prosecuting people who share information at no profit, but people like this have no leg to stand on. If anyone should make money, it should be the holders of those copyrights.
- is improving a product able to even be classed as a crime in and of itself in any reasonable society?
Altering a product which results in an illegal item (assembling bombs etc), OK. That's a separate area of law entirely. But producing an end product or system which can merely do more of something which is already allowed? Where there is no law against making an eleventh copy other than that the manufacturer would pretty-please like people not to? THAT'S how they're going to try and stay profitable?
Is manufacturing crowbars, axes, or knives going to become illegal because they can possibly be used for illegal acts? How about hammers, screwdrivers or rolls of duct tape? They let people repair stuff themselves instead of paying for a new one or an expensive repair service - BAN THEM!
What I'm interested in is where the physical lock industry is going to end up heading. How long has the design of better SOHO-scale locks languished because manual and automatic lockpicks have varying degrees of illegality? Why are the vast majority of modern house and car door locks able to be opened with devices which have been around for decades, if not centuries? It's known that security through obscurity is not a good philosophy, so why is so much physical access based on it?