News Releases

January 22, 2018
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors,
Composers and Publishers
(JASRAC)

Fukushima Prefectural Police Headquarters Arrest Man for Distributing
Unauthorized Copies of Hard Disks of Online Karaoke for Business Use

On January 17, the Consumer and Environmental Affairs Division of the Fukushima Prefecture Police Headquarters and its Tamura Police Station arrested a man residing in Kashima City, Ibaraki Prefecture for alleged copyright infringement (distributing unauthorized copies). The man allegedly sold hard disks of which musical data for karaoke were copied through Internet auctions knowing that those were unauthorized.

Online karaoke machines for business use cannot be used unless the user signs a contract with the karaoke operator and connects to the communication line. However, the copies of hard disks which the man sold were illegally modified to make it available without concluding a contract.
From auction records, it is revealed that the man started to sell hard disks from around May, 2014 and sold at least 200 copies and earned profits of more than 1 million yen over the last 3 years.

This is the second case in this fiscal year that a person was arrested for distributing unauthorized copies of online karaoke for business use.

JASRAC will continue its efforts to deal with illegal usages which threatens business who properly uses music in cooperation with other related parties and business operators.

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