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News Releases

November 15, 2016
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors,
Composers and Publishers
(JASRAC)

Fukushima Prefectural Police Headquarters Refer Man to Prosecutors for Reproducing and
Distributing Online Karaoke Music Data without Authorization

On November 11, following a complaint filed by JASRAC, the Consumer and Environmental Affairs Division of the Fukushima Prefecture Police Headquarters and its Tamura Police Station referred a 60-year-old man residing in Tamura City, Fukushima Prefecture, to the Koriyama Branch of the Fukushima District Public Prosecutors Office for alleged copyright infringement. The man allegedly copied hard disks of online karaoke machines for business use which include musical works administered by JASRAC without authorization and sold them at Internet auctions.

According to the police investigation, the man considered that purchasing a hard disk, which program was illegally rewritten, from another person, copying it to secondhand cheap hard disks, and selling them would be profitable, although knowing that it was illegal. It was revealed that he sold more than 60 copies even after January 2016, and the profit gained by selling was mainly devoted to entertainment.

In order to use online karaoke for business use, an information service charge contract which connects the online karaoke operators and the communication line is necessary regardless of the place of usage (at premise or home etc.). The hard disks which were copied by the man were illegally rewritten as a program so that it can be used without connecting the line. The man had been selling those disks by expressing that it is “indefinitely available” without any information service charge if you replace them with your own hard disk of the machine.

JASRAC will continue its efforts to raise copyright awareness through public relations activities in cooperation with related industries, with an aim to eradicate acts of copyright infringement.

End

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