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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."

13 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder how the police cracked this case.

    1. Re:Hmm by RDW · · Score: 4, Funny

      '...including one teenager who then resold the software to another 240 people.'

      Sounds the Toshiba guy should have used some sort of 'copy-protection' technology to safeguard his product.

  2. Argument by headkase · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Argument by realityimpaired · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Most people will pay for something if they feel that the price point matches the perceived value, rather than steal it.

      It's just that more often than not, the perceived value is nowhere near as high as the value set by the seller, and when such a cognitive dissonance exists, people will steal it and justify that however they choose. I will, for example, choose Avast over Norton for antivirus on Windows machines, because, ethically, I'd rather have something that's legitimately being given away than steal something that isn't. In a society where people have been conditionned to have a 30s attention span (thank you, commercials!), and to expect instant gratification, that break point where people decide that it's no longer worth paying for something is decreasing. Industry needs to recognize that, and either reexamine their business models (so that they're only selling things that can't be stolen, and no, I don't mean DRM, I mean sell services rather than products), or to adjust their pricing to reflect how people value their wares.

    2. Re:Argument by Microlith · · Score: 3, Insightful

      People are stealing because they know intuitively in their gut that they are being ripped off

      They -think- they are being ripped off, but they would do so even if the prices were truly reasonable. The p2p audience seems to consist of pack-rats and freeloaders, with a tiny subset of people who take a moral (and sometimes hypocritical) stand.

      copyright holders are failing to meet the needs of their customers - nobody wants digital restrictions

      No argument there, but making a case against it is hard. Progress is being made, with the rapid death of DRM on music distributed via iTunes and Amazon.

    3. Re:Argument by Sabriel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wall-E on Blu-Ray for $18? Awesome! Oh, wait, Amazon's warning me about something:

      Please note: Your order contains at least one Region 1 (Canada and U.S.) encoded DVD. Region 1 DVDs might not play in DVD players sold in the country where this order is being shipped. Please also note that some Region 1 DVDs contain a Regional Coding Enhancement. Some of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on their “region-free” DVD players. Learn more about DVD region encoding and formats. To modify your order, edit the quantities below.

      Hmm. It also seems the DRM on the disc won't let me make a backup in case of the kids wrecking it either. What was that you were saying about Disney's confidence in its customers?

  3. What crime has he committed? by pla · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:What crime has he committed? by WCguru42 · · Score: 3, Informative

      My best bet would be facilitating in copyright infringement (though I have zero knowledge of japanese law of any form). The fact that he didn't make the software really doesn't seem relevant. There's nothing inherently illegal about creating that software as long as it doesn't get out. I could tinker around making all sorts of software (well, if I knew how to code) that when used would be illegal just to see if I was capable of making the code without any repercussions.

      In a probably flawed analogy, simply because you didn't cook the coke doesn't mean you won't get arrested for selling it.

      --
      "Educate the mind but never at the expense of the soul."~Blessed Basil Moreau
  4. I'm pretty surprised... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

  5. 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.

    1. Re:Japanese police by nedlohs · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No, in Canada or most of Europe there is no real shame for the prosecution in a not guilty verdict. In Japan it's a career ending event.

      Now that they've restored juries, though with a pretty strange variant, things might have changed - but when there weren't juries it was predictable enough for the prosecution that they wouldn't bring to trial anything they weren't sure they would win.

  6. I think Japan participates in ACTA by turtleshadow · · Score: 3, Informative

    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?

  7. Toshiba: guilt by association? by InakaBoyJoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.