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Japan: Police Arrest Journalists For Selling DVD-Backup Tools

Posted by timothy on from the selective-enforcement dept.

Modellismo writes "Last week four journalists from Sansai Books were arrested for selling, through the company website, a copy of a magazine published last year (with a free cover mounted disc) focused on how to backup/rip DVDs. They violated Japan's Unfair Competition Prevention Law that recently has been revised to make illegal the sale of any DRM circumvention device or software. It's interesting to note that Japanese cyber police could arrest the Amazon Japan CEO, too, as the online giant is selling a lot of magazines, books and software packages for DVD copy and ripping: exactly what put Sansai Books' staff in trouble."

7 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. libdvdcss ilegal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    wonder how many enbedded devices produced in japan have this little piece of code in them...

    1. Re:libdvdcss ilegal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's interesting to note that Japanese cyber police could arrest the Amazon Japan CEO, too

      Eh... if they can slap steel handcuffs on you and drag you to a brick-and-mortar jail, they aren't cyber police. They're real meatspace police.

  2. Japan: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The only country who bows lower to corporations than the US of A.

    1. Re:Japan: by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's like you believe Korea does not even exist!

      Corporations are an extension of government - it should not surprise anyone when they work together.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Japan: by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Have you actually read one of these magazines? I have a few of them here and they are quite incredible from a westerner's point of view.

      I have a couple that are all about downloading, one focused on BitTorrent and the other on Share and Winny. They have huge lists of web sites that index warez, films, TV shows and porn, each one rated for you. They explain how to download and set up emulators, how to burn Playstation 2 games to DVD and chip your console, how to use a Nintendo DS flash card and so forth. On the first page there is a tiny warning about not breaking copyright laws, then 90 pages of how to break copyright laws.

      That is the real story here. The fact that the police picked this particular bit of software as their way of prosecuting these guys is just an aside. Personally I love those mags but I can understand why the police were under pressure to find a way of taking action.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  3. Two things come to mind by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unfair Competition Prevention Law

    Most people would think that this law is designed to prevent unfair competition. What it really means is it's an unfair law to prevent competition.

    Also, getting governments to step on other people for you is apparently NOT unfair competition...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  4. Re:Journalists? by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the point is, those without money should still get quality education, healthcare, and a chance at advancing themselves

    but current tax laws in the USA and American social policies advanced by the right are stratifying society, permanently

    meaning, if you are poor or middle class, you get inferior education, healthcare, and no chance to advance socioeconomically

    the point of life should be to better yourself. not to slave your entire life for someone who already has a lot of money, always will have a lot of money, never suffers for their crimes in the same way as the poor, and lives in a system rigged so that they, their children, and their grandchildren, can never possibly be poor. while those are poor, their children, and their grandchildren, are in such a rigged system they can never possibly be rich

    that's wealth inequality. a class society. that's where the USA is headed with the right wing republican political agenda

    the USA should be a MERITOCRACY. this is not what we have. what we have are country club boys complaining that the poor don't understand hard work, while they get a cushy job where they hardly exert any effort, just for chumming with the dad of their friend. meanwhile, the poor and middle class bust their ass, sometimes in two jobs, and live paycheck to paycheck, where the smallest of accidents or healthcare emergencies can ruin their entire lives

    THAT'S wealth inequality, and it is not a free society

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it