Violation of the Copyright Act: Salaryman arrested for illegal distribution of Arashi videos
It's not really the sort of news people will want to hear so soon after reading about Jun's surprise visit to kids affected by the earthquake, but since this is pretty relevant to fandom I thought people would benefit from a full translation as well.
Violation of the Japanese Copyright Act: Salaryman arrested for illegal distribution of "Arashi" videos by the Saitama prefecture police
On the 11th of May, police from the Saitama prefecture arrested suspect Miyazaki Masahiro (51), a salaryman from Kusubashi Nishi 2 in the Yahatanishi district of Kitakyushuu city, for the violation of the Japanese Copyright Act (infringement of Public Transmission Rights). He was charged with publicly sharing footage of concerts by the popular idol group Arashi to Youtube, a video sharing site, without obtaining consent from the copyright holder. According to the police, building a criminal case for sharing videos on Youtube is a first ever in the nation.
The suspect was in violation of the Japanese Copyright Act during the period of November 22nd of last year to February 5th by publicly sharing Arashi's concert footage from two different products including the DVD "ARASHI AROUND ASIA+ in DOME" as well as commercial broadcasts of variety shows on Youtube. According to the police, he has testified that he "wanted to earn some spending money" from it. The suspect Miyazaki had been directing viewers onto his own homepage in hopes of generating ad revenue. A copyright organization provided information and alerted the police to the matter. [T/N: In another article, it was further stated that his site had received tens of thousands of hits.]
While there was another Youtube case last June where Kyoto prefectural police charged a suspect in violation of the same Copyright Act, it was in regards to the appearance of manga ahead of release dates and did not involve the sharing of videos.
Source: Mainichi news
NOTE: Here are some clarifications for any confusion in regards to the article:
- Profiting through ad revenue, while also wrong in itself, was not the root cause of his arrest; he was arrested on the basis of violating copyright by uploading without consent from the copyright holders. It may have attracted attention faster than it would have if he hadn't been making money off those videos, but the bottom line is he never obtained permission to begin with.
- Johnny's was not behind this arrest. The police was alerted by a copyright organization (likely one of those watchdogs that monitor the internet for violations) and subsequently pressed charges because he's breaking the law. They would have arrested him even if he wasn't uploading Johnny's videos, such as AKB48 or various anime series, because he would still be doing so without consent. The news article probably only focused on the fact that he uploaded Arashi's videos because it makes for a more attention-grabbing headline. Not only that, I think it's worth noting that they've stated it to be a first ever such case in the country-- which may mean they're trying to use him to set an example, and it just so happens the videos he was uploading were of Arashi.
- Most videos removed from Youtube on copyright claims are due to actions by broadcasting companies (or record labels) and not Johnny's. Unless the material was owned by a subsidiary of Johnny's (such as J-Storm or Johnny's Entertainment), it is the broadcasting company (or record label) that holds the rights to remove their content.
Violation of the Japanese Copyright Act: Salaryman arrested for illegal distribution of "Arashi" videos by the Saitama prefecture police
On the 11th of May, police from the Saitama prefecture arrested suspect Miyazaki Masahiro (51), a salaryman from Kusubashi Nishi 2 in the Yahatanishi district of Kitakyushuu city, for the violation of the Japanese Copyright Act (infringement of Public Transmission Rights). He was charged with publicly sharing footage of concerts by the popular idol group Arashi to Youtube, a video sharing site, without obtaining consent from the copyright holder. According to the police, building a criminal case for sharing videos on Youtube is a first ever in the nation.
The suspect was in violation of the Japanese Copyright Act during the period of November 22nd of last year to February 5th by publicly sharing Arashi's concert footage from two different products including the DVD "ARASHI AROUND ASIA+ in DOME" as well as commercial broadcasts of variety shows on Youtube. According to the police, he has testified that he "wanted to earn some spending money" from it. The suspect Miyazaki had been directing viewers onto his own homepage in hopes of generating ad revenue. A copyright organization provided information and alerted the police to the matter. [T/N: In another article, it was further stated that his site had received tens of thousands of hits.]
While there was another Youtube case last June where Kyoto prefectural police charged a suspect in violation of the same Copyright Act, it was in regards to the appearance of manga ahead of release dates and did not involve the sharing of videos.
Source: Mainichi news
NOTE: Here are some clarifications for any confusion in regards to the article:
- Profiting through ad revenue, while also wrong in itself, was not the root cause of his arrest; he was arrested on the basis of violating copyright by uploading without consent from the copyright holders. It may have attracted attention faster than it would have if he hadn't been making money off those videos, but the bottom line is he never obtained permission to begin with.
- Johnny's was not behind this arrest. The police was alerted by a copyright organization (likely one of those watchdogs that monitor the internet for violations) and subsequently pressed charges because he's breaking the law. They would have arrested him even if he wasn't uploading Johnny's videos, such as AKB48 or various anime series, because he would still be doing so without consent. The news article probably only focused on the fact that he uploaded Arashi's videos because it makes for a more attention-grabbing headline. Not only that, I think it's worth noting that they've stated it to be a first ever such case in the country-- which may mean they're trying to use him to set an example, and it just so happens the videos he was uploading were of Arashi.
- Most videos removed from Youtube on copyright claims are due to actions by broadcasting companies (or record labels) and not Johnny's. Unless the material was owned by a subsidiary of Johnny's (such as J-Storm or Johnny's Entertainment), it is the broadcasting company (or record label) that holds the rights to remove their content.