The current Copyright Act of Japan bans downloading pirated movies and music clips, but does not protect the piracy of photographs and other still images like Manga.But it looks like that is about to change. The Agency for Cultural Affairs intends to make the downloading of still images of manga comics or pictures knowing they have been pirated punishable, according to sources within the department.
The punishment could be up to two years of imprisonment or a maximum 2 million yen fine
would be slapped on violators, according to the same sources.
The agency intends to submit revisions to the law in the ordinary session of the Diet (parliament) next year. However, according to Mainichi sources familiar with government planning, changes are already in the pipeline. The Agency for Cultural Affairs is reportedly planing and working on the criminalization of copyrighted image downloading, when the downloader knows that the content they’re obtaining is pirated.
Japan also intends to criminalize platforms like "Haruka Yumeno Ato", (a site promoting pirated Manga comics,) too. In October 2018 it was revealed that operators of sites that link to copyright-infringing content could face prison terms of up to five years if they knowingly link to pirated content and refuse to respond to take down requests. The damage
caused by such sites is said to have amounted to 73.1 billion yen during
the past year, and is growing.
Organizations of publishers complain that magazines, photo books and literary books are now being targeted by piracy as well.
(Japanese original by Takuya Izawa, City News Department)Via Torrentfreak
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