Pirates in Japan now face a significant jail sentence and a very substantial fine following a change in the Japanese legislature which introduces new and more stringent penalties.
Japan is the second biggest market in the world for music after the United States and it’s no surprise then that the music industry is now exerting pressure in relation to copyright infringements.
Recent changes in Japanese legislation, which were lobbied for by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), now mean extremely tough sentences for would be pirates.
Piracy was only made illegal in Japan in 2010 however the latest legislative changes mark a significant escalation in the penalties applied, which has sparked protests against the measures and already triggered hacktivist demonstrations in Tokyo.
The penalties introduced at the behest of the RIAJ include a potential two year jail sentence in addition to a fine of up two million Yen (equivalent to $25,700 or £15,900) for illegal downloads, both of which in theory can be enforced if a user has downloaded just a single pirated file.
The penalties for illegal uploads are even more severe with a ten year jail sentence and a fine of up to ten million Yen (equivalent to $128,400 or £79,600) and again in theory this can be applied to people that have uploaded just a single copyrighted file.
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations which is the representative body for Japan’s legal professionals also spoke out against, and attempted to prevent, the measures having stated that the matter should have remained a civil offence rather than a criminal one.
Clearly though this did not sway the Japanese politicians who chose to accept the RIAJ’s advice rather than that of the country’s top legal experts.
The BBC discusses this story further here.
