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Toshiba Employee Arrested For Selling Software To Break Copy Limits

Posted by Soulskill on from the those-three-little-letters dept.

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."

1 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Japanese police by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.