|
February 25, 2010
JASRAC
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors,
Composers and Publishers (JASRAC)
Man illegally uploading copyright infringing music data by
abusing file-sharing software "Cabos" is arrested
The Living Environment Section, Department of Community Safety of the Kagawa Prefectural Police Department and the Takamatsu South Police Station have announced today that they have arrested a 33-year-old man operating a restaurant in Takamatsu City on suspicion of Copyright Law violation (infringement of public transmission rights). The man was making music files available to the public without consent on the Internet by using "Cabos," a Gnutella file-sharing software.
The man is suspected of infringing copyright (public transmission rights) by making data of music, which JASRAC has the copyrights of, available to the public without obtaining permission from the right-owners. The music data files were made available to an indefinite number of Internet users between December 12 and 15, 2009 at the restaurant operated by the man. This is the first time in Japan a person was arrested for music copyright infringement by the abuse of file-sharing software "Cabos."
Abuse of file-sharing software is causing serious copyright infringement. As illegal music distribution poses an impediment to the development of music culture, JASRAC will continue to collaborate with the police and will work strongly for the elimination of illegal distribution on the Internet.
Note:
The downloading of music from sites conducting illegal distribution and P2P software networks under the knowledge that the distributions are illegal became an illegal act as of January 2010 due to an amendment to the Japanese Copyright Law.
In addition, "Cabos" and many other file-sharing software have the function to make files available to the public just by using it. JASRAC is alerting users that such use could result in illegal conduct which is subject to penalty.
*Cabos: Japanese file-sharing software which sends and receives data through communication between users, requiring no central server. An example of other software which uses Gnutella networks is "Limewire."
*For more information on the amended Copyright Law, please refer to the Japanese government's Internet video (available in Japanese only):
http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/prg/prg2824.html
|
