News Releases

November 5, 2015
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors,
Composers and Publishers
（JASRAC）

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

On November 2, following a complaint filed by JASRAC, the Consumer and Environmental Affairs Division of the Miyagi Prefecture Police Headquarters and its Izumi Police Station referred a 52-year-old man in Sendai City to the Sendai District Public Prosecutors Office for alleged copyright infringement. The man allegedly copied the hard disks of online karaoke machines for business use, mounted them on used karaoke machines, and sold them at Internet auctions.

Online karaoke for business use can be used by paying monthly fees to online karaoke operators, but the hard disks copied by the man were illegally modified so that the locking functions, which automatically prevent users from using the disks unless they pay monthly fees, did not work properly. The man sold them claiming that his karaoke could be used free of charge.
The police investigation also revealed that since around May 2013 he had sold about 70 illegally modified karaoke consoles, even though he recognized it was illegal.

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