AfterDawn: News

Japan convicts Winny author

The author of the popular Japanese P2P software Winny has been convicted and fined by a Kyoto district court. Isamu Kaneko, a researcher at Tokyo University, was arrested all the way back in May 2004. The Winny software has been used to distribute copyrighted material and had over half a million users earlier this year. This week, a court found Kaneko guilty of enabling copyright infringement, and fined him ¥1.5m.

"The ruling will stop the development of information technology in Japan. Programmers will no longer be willing to develop new technologies," the League for Software Engineers director told the Daily Yomiuri newspaper. The verdict has been appealed and the case will now move to a higher court.



In the United States, the supreme court ruled in the Grokster case that developers/operators of software/services who induce copyright infringement may be found liable for the acts of infringement. However, U.S. courts have yet to prosecute software developers that the supreme court ruling would apply to.

Source:
Reg Developer

Written by: James Delahunty @ 16 Dec 2006 19:54

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• 17 comments

• DR34MER

  I bet the verdict will be held up in court - Sony will see to it.

  16.12.2006 20:30 #1

• ZippyDSM

  great all the dominoes are falling in place around the world first P2P ir might have its gray aeras but the coperations wont stop until they get haf of your paycheck and have destroyed all freedoms.

  16.12.2006 22:44 #2

• Ghostdog

  Quote:In the United States, the supreme court ruled in the Grokster case that developers/operators of software/services who induce copyright infringement may be found liable for the acts of infringement. However, U.S. courts have yet to prosecute software developers that the supreme court ruling would apply to. That´s like sueing gun companies for aiding in the crimes they´re customers have commited. I might be wrong, but I don´t think any company has been found liable yet. And how many american civilians have died from gunshot wounds in the past, say... 30 years?
  

  17.12.2006 01:03 #3

• ZippyDSM

  Ghostdog
  you forget the people can only sue the corperations in some instances but the corperations can sue anyone at any time for anyhting.
  
  this is all just a slow movement to a corperate owned world.

  17.12.2006 02:35 #4

• DR34MER

  Actually big tobacco has been found liable for indirect injury in some cases and eventually gun smithy will inevitably follow. It's all a matter of visibility and the longer you're successful and consequently in the public eye, the closer your industry as a whole comes to some form of public liability. Let's face it, a large proportion of internet traffic (P2P, http, FTP and other protocols) is being used on a daily basis in the art of infringing copyright....the more this happens, the more corporations hemorrhage, the more public liability becomes a potential issue.

  17.12.2006 05:17 #5

• ZippyDSM

  DR34MER
  even so how is downloading a game or book or movie thats out of print hurt them?
  I mean come one once you can buy it used theres little diffrance in buying used and downloading and paying the ISP the going rate for bandwidth.
  
  while there is some harm being done to them on "new releases" its not as bad as they say I really wish the goverment would step in and impose a regulation that blanaces out the people right to information IE programs/audio/video/book/text for personal use and the medias interest of turning a profit it will never happen since the media mafia is now in charge >>
  

  17.12.2006 05:29 #6

• borhan9

  They just like creating lawsuits don't they :)

  17.12.2006 13:09 #7

• Steve83

  Forget guns & software - I want all the CAR companies to pay for all the deaths & injuries that result from cars! Cars have killed more people in the past 100 years than ALL bombs plus ALL guns in the past ~2,500 years since gunpowder was invented. GM owes me a LOT of money!

  21.12.2006 15:30 #8

• eLeCTR0n

  again it's getting harder and harder for home users and individuals to sue corporations for all the evil they do. And, it's getting even easier for corporations to sue anybody they feel like suing.
  

  21.12.2006 16:55 #9

• zabadoh

  ZippyDSM, they could say "piracy reduces our incentive to re-publish the content, therefore reducing the value of our copyright. We'll sue Joe User for that." Putting copyright on information is bullshit.

  22.12.2006 09:29 #10

• kevinv

  the way i look at it is this, if you have the money to push you around, they will say you are resposible, as in the big guns like sony or ms or who ever, they have the layers, the money and the backing to make it there way or else.
  

  24.12.2006 04:42 #11

• ZippyDSM

  zabadoh
  and if we bought everythign they sell they would some how but more effort into games/movies?
  
  I don't think so the corperations maximize profit by putting the least amount of effort into things and suing everything that moves is just one way to do that,why polish talent or quality when you can make money from suing and selling low quality crap,currently they have it both ways and refuse to change its going to take a revolution or the goverment to do soemthign about it and both are a long way off.

  24.12.2006 04:54 #12

• kapkirk

  Ghostdog,
  
  "And how many american civilians have died from gunshot wounds in the past, say... 30 years?"
  
  Not nearly as many as have died in alcohol related traffic accidents. So, let's sue the makers of alcohol and cars first.
  
  http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/drving.htm
  
  http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=120
  
  What ever we can do to thin 'The Herd' the better.
  
  Oh, never mind. This will just denigrate into a 2nd ammendment interpretation debate, if you even have one.
  

  2.1.2007 08:02 #13

• ZippyDSM

  So lets flood the underground with money by making booze illegal like we do with most drugs.
  
  there is a balance to things if we have booze we should have laws that WORK to deal with thos that drive drunk,a automatic 30 day suspension of drivers license would be a good start,there is a balance in legalizeing dugs have laws to prevent harm to others and to save the goverment money but they dislike such things,governments are rarely efficant...

  2.1.2007 08:13 #14

• kapkirk

  Zippy, Well thought out and well stated. "Let's sue the alcohol and car companies first"
  That was sarcasm.
  
  Government is not into running "efficantly". Never has been, never will.
  
  People with agendas seek lawsuits against makers of products. Agendas of a minority to not make good public policy.
  
  Just what we need, more laws.(Sarcasm again)
  
  Enforce the ones you have, fix the ones that don't work, and throw out the rest.
  
  
  

  2.1.2007 08:29 #15

• solarf

  I hope it does not hold up in court, corporations are going to far.They just want to sue everyone.

  13.1.2007 08:30 #16

• Davedough

  Current database errors here at Afterdawn have caused a few crosslinking problems. This topic does not belong with the most recent news post. Please bear with us as admins are working at resolving the issue.
  

  
  

  13.1.2007 08:40 #17