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Downloading copyright work without the consent of the owner could now land Japanese online users in jail after a Copyright law amendment has got approval in the House
July06, 2012: The censorship status has taken a big leap in Japan with the downloading of copyrighted material being termed as a criminal act. The punishments also apply for users that are found guilty to have possessed the pirated materials such as Blu-ray discs, DVDs and CDs of music albums, movies etc.
The decision came after an amendment in the copyright was passed both from the Lower and Upper House with negligible opposition.
This new law has made Japan to follow into the footsteps of U.S., where illegal downloading could invite severe penalties of up to 5 years of Jail, or the compulsion to pay sumptuous amount of $250,000 as fine.
On similar lines, the Asian country has fixed the fine of up to 2 million yen (near about $25,000) followed by the imprisonment that may go up to two years .
The practice of downloading copyright content is termed as illegal in Japan since 2009 but till now it was only restricted to civil matters and was not considered as a criminal offense.
The punishments were however only confined to the users found guilty of uploading pirated content that included 10 years of imprisonment or fine of up to 10 million yen. But with the introduction of this new law even the users that access copyright content on YouTube can be brought to book.
According to reports by NTV, the decision has received overwhelming response by the music industry as CEO of Warner Music Japan, Keiichi Ishizaka was reported to have quoted that he would “like to see all illegal downloading eradicated.”
The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) too sounded very much similar as it expressed its willingness over the passing of the new law, sensing it as an important measure to let the public aware of the dire consequences of copyright infringement.
In an interview, CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Japan and RIAJ Chairman Naoki Kitagawa expected that the changes “would reduce the spread of copyright infringement activities on the Internet.”
However, the law has also got some rave reviews from legal experts and groups such as Japan Federation of Bar Associations that foresee it as “an excessive measure in a country that still relies on the sales and rentals of physical media and has seen a relatively slow uptake of legal download services.”
Yuko Mori, one of the opponents of the passed bill in the Upper House, too put forth his concerned views before the Japanese media as he said. “We shouldn’t risk making the general public, including young people, the subject of criminal investigations.”
Amid all these mixes reactions, the law is all set to be implemented finally in October this year. In order to save the users from being tracked by administrative authorities in Japan, VPN could prove to be an effectual source.
It is a prominent filter bypassing tool and has helped millions to perform the downloading and uploading activities in total anonymity.
Chances are brighter that VPN providers would come handy in providing capable assistance to the Japanese citizens as well provided that the government there does not installs power applications to block this effective circumventing tool.
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