Security News Japan Plans to Criminalize Pirate Link Sites, Up to Five Years in Jail for Operators

[upnorth]

Content source

https://torrentfreak.com/japan-plans-to-criminalize-pirate-link-sites-up-to-five-years-in-jail-for-operators-181015/

Sites that link to copyright-infringing content aren't currently illegal under Japanese law but efforts are underway to close the loophole. The government is considering prison terms of up to five years for site operators who knowingly link to pirated content and refuse to respond to takedowns requests.

For the past several months, authorities in Japan have been grappling with the thorny issue of online piracy. The country has attempted to deal with the issue previously but there now appears to be greater momentum. Back in September an advisory panel for the Agency for Cultural Affairs recommended that ‘pirate’ indexing sites (known locally as ‘leech’ sites) should be outlawed. These platforms host no infringing content themselves but provide hyperlinks to content hosted elsewhere. Unlike in Europe where such sites are illegal when they deliberately provide access to content on a for-profit basis, in Japan there is no law that specifically renders them illegal. An estimated 200 ‘leech’ sites exist locally and plugging the legal loopholes could make a significant impact on piracy rates, the government believes. The aim will be to criminalize the act of knowingly linking to copyrighted content, or linking to the same when site operators should “reasonably be expected” to know that the content is infringing. Copyright holders will be able to have such links taken down and when site operators fail to respond, hefty sentences will apply.

 

[Weebarra]

I suppose they are just getting in line with other countries now. I do believe the owners of such sites should be punished but not necessarily with prison terms but i'm not sure how i would punish them

 

[Eddie Morra]

If the copyrighted material has been tampered with in a "malicious" way towards the viewer downloading and using the copyrighted material... double the sentence!

 

[upnorth]

We had some recent sentence on pirates in this country but those ends up in fines so the entertainment industry is outraged.

Private Torrent Site Operators Ordered to Pay $440k Damages - TorrentFreak

 

[show-Zi]

The reaction of users in Japan is calm. "If we are free, we will be interested in watching. However, there are many opinions that I do not intend to watch for a fee. This is very similar to the view on online software with mixed free and paid stuff.

 

[Thales]

Owners make millions even if pirate sites exist. They just want to make more money.