RIAJ raids in Japan, 18 arrested

The Japanese police carried out raids all over the country last week. They managed to arrest 18 people who have allegedly uploaded copyrighted movies, music, games, and software to the Internet.

Anti-Counterfeiting Association (ACA) which consists of many of the influential trade groups had been monitoring the Internet use in Japan for weeks to spot the possible copyright infringements. They handed out the information to police who started the operation last Tuesday.

The police searched a total of 50 locations and found 18 individuals who are waiting to be prosecuted. One of the ACA partners, Recording Industry Association of Japan, has released details of the arrested.

Even though the operation was quite a large one, none of the accused pirates are big time crooks. Even the worst of the bunch shared only a couple games or music tracks.

Written by: Matti Robinson @ 17 Jan 2011 6:29

Tristan_2

I bet you anything this company wanted Japan's Copyright Law to end so people can't download stuff what they claim is illegal for personal use. Think about it, we barely saw these "raids" while the copyright law in Japan was fair...but as soon as it became just like ours(or similar) Bam! here come the "raids"...Something Fishy is going on

17.1.2011 06:35 #1

KillerBug

Japan must be a wonderful place to live...clearly the police have NOTHING to do.

17.1.2011 22:26 #2

Pop_Smith

"Even the worst of the bunch shared only a couple games or music tracks."

Wow. I get possibly arresting someone that is sharing tens of thousands of tracks but the most files I saw in reports were in the low thousands, even in the U.S..

Copyright law is messed up when fair market value (i.e. 99-cents/track) doesn't apply to file-sharing.

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=V1VZAD0O <-- Brian Regan "Take Luck" video.

"The only people who should buy Monster cable are people who light cigars with Benjamins." - Gizmodo

17.1.2011 23:24 #3

KillerBug

Sell a $1 track for $1, get caught, and pay $0.50 for each copy you sold...give away a $1 track and pay $18,000 per track.

It is a great time to be a serial killer in Japan; the cops are too busy arresting people for sharing to do anything about murder.

18.1.2011 05:26 #4

ZippyDSM

Whats worse lending a game in Japan is a crime.

Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy!
Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".
http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

18.1.2011 10:32 #5

editmon

Pirate a song go to jail, steal billions from investors and retirees and get money from the government. What am I missing here?

21.1.2011 11:19 #6

omendata

You said it editmon.
One rule for the rich one for the poor as always.

And the real crooks behind it all are the rich ones!

26.1.2011 18:48 #7

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