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Illegal Downloading Now a Crime In Japan With Increased Penalties

Posted by samzenpus on from the go-directly-to-jail dept.

eldavojohn writes "Although downloading songs without paying for them in Japan used to be a civil offense starting in 2010, it is now a crime with new penalties of up to two years in prison or fines of up to two million yen ($25,700). The lobbying group behind this push for more extreme penalties is none other than the RIAJ (the Japanese RIAA). The BBC notes this applies to both music and video downloads which may put anime studios in a particularly uncomfortable position."

1 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Fighting Piracy is Good for Open Source by o5770 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'm a struggling open source artist trying to make some cash, but as long as pirates are allowed to download what they want.. well, they will download the popular songs and not mine. By fighting against piracy, we open source artists win as people have to listen to our music instead.

    This is not only true for music, but also software development and everything else FOSS. If anti-piracy would win, then so would open source software.