5 P2P Site Admins Arrested in Japan

[Axandra]

5 Japan teens arrested for file sharing

(p2pnet.net, following on Billboard story)

June 11, 2009: Japan is hopping smartly to it on behalf of Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US).

Five teenagers, all site admins on the One Touch BB, "were brought in for questioning by the police last week, including one 13-year old who was given juvenile probation," says Billboard.

They'd already been warned to, "stop using copyright-protected material," says the story.

In recent months, two adults have been arrested for uploading songs to the site.

Following complaints by the Big 4's JASRAC rights' society, "police issued warnings to Aichi Information System, the operators of the BBS, and hauled in the five teenagers from the city of Fukuoka," says the story, adding:

"JASRAC has previously filed complaints about the same site and the police have taken action against two people in the last two months. In April a male university student was fined 600,000 yen ($6,120), and in May a 54-year-old male doctor was fined 500,000 yen ($5,100)."

 

[Axandra]

Don't Download This Song

Sorry, I don't want to sound like I'm replying to myself just to generate traffic However, submitting this piece of news reminded me of one of my favorite Weird Al's songs. So, without bothering to re-edit the original entry, I'll express my position by letting this cool artist speak (or should I say sing) for me.

So here it is: Watch it on YouTube, since embedding is disabled by request. Must be a popular one...

And the lyrics:

Once in a while maybe you will feel the urge
To break international copyright law
By downloading MP3s from file-sharing sites
Like Morpheus or Grokster or Limewire or KaZaA

But deep in your heart you know the guilt would drive you mad
And the shame would leave a permanent scar
'Cause you start out stealing songs and then you're robbing liquor stores
And sellin' crack and runnin' over school kids with your car

So don't download this song
The record store's where you belong
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should
Oh, don't download this song

Oh, you don't wanna mess with the R-I-double-A
They'll sue you if you burn that CD-R
It doesn't matter if you're a grandma or a seven year old girl
They'll treat you like the evil hard-bitten criminal scum you are

So don't download this song
Don't go pirating music all day long
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should
Oh, don't download this song

Don't take away money from artists just like me
How else can I afford another solid gold Hum-Vee
And diamond-studded swimming pools
These things don't grow on trees
So all I ask is, "Everybody, please..."

Don't download this song (Don't do it, no, no)
Even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong (You can just ask him)
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should (You really should)
Oh, don't download this song

Don't download this song (Oh please, don't you do it)
Or you might wind up in jail like Tommy Chong (Remember Tommy)
Go and buy the CD (Right now) like you know that you should (Go out and buy it)
Oh, don't download this song

Don't download this song (No, no, no, no, no, no)
You'll burn in hell before too long (and you'll deserve it)
Go and buy the CD (Just buy it) like you know that you should (You cheap bastard)
Oh, don't download this song

 

[Ditrik]

If it's true that they've been previously warned I see no reason why they continued with their sharing. My best guess would be that they didn't take it seriously and continued with their activities.

 

[coleix]

Is not only that they have been warned man, they took action against two uploaders off their site so they already knew they would take action sooner or later and it appears it was sooner than they expected.

 

[jupiter999]

Arresting admins...
Sounds kinda dangerous to me...
Gosh~ I wonder normal users like us will be arrested or not?

 

[techie]

Jammie in Iowa just got fined $1,92 MILLION USD for 24 songs shared.
Just as a reference to the "very low" fines issued in Japanese comparisons.

(I wonder how much of that the RIAA actually will pay to the so-called financially threatened artists - at $80,000 per tune fines and legal fee's)

 

[fr0stbyte]

This forum practically does the same stuff.. I wonder how long we'll be able to "evade" their radar. Do you guys realize how many Japanese individuals visit this site for their file-sharing needs? Even forums like mimip2p are populated mostly by Japanese members. You'd see your peers listed as Japanese users with crazy download speeds (that I can only dream of). Everyday I brace myself for any site take-down news, especially A-O.

Every once in a while, if a site goes down for a significant amount of time I keep thinking to myself "they've shut down! holy s#!+!".

An interesting question to raise would be "how much longer will p2p sites exist?"

 

[Axandra]

I don't know how and what's going to be but, at least for the moment, there are definitely some areas "hotter" than others that are being targeted; music and CP are two of them. (Personally, I stopped downloading music about 2 years ago. Switched to online radio stations and I'm still satisfied. I'm not nor ever been into CP.)

The first pretense has to do more with a dying business model and the elimination of outrageously rewarded middlemen. The other pretense, well, I've already expressed my opinion on this matter in another thread.

As for porn... I don't know, but I do sometime fantasize of being the manager of a production house or an online AV store. Not only I wouldn't try to piss against the wind, but I'd be the first to leak the latest flick: in this playing field with its cutthroat competition, more brand exposure eventually can only lead to more sales and rentals.

Take a look at the number of titles in any given serious series, a cool studio's productions, or a good AV store: series into the hundreds, years of business hitting the decade or even more. All this while being heavily present on P2P sites for years. It only seems to me that they're lucrative enough... or that file sharers aren't really effective in their means or purposes.

Where I would really direct my efforts would be in the direction of payment methods and privacy. None of us is porn-shy in my family, yet I can't bring myself to using my CC to gain membership access to such a site. I'll let anyone figure out the reasons...

 

[fr0stbyte]

Anyone here having a problem with mimip2p? I can't seem to access the site.

 

[IdolFun]

Anyone here having a problem with mimip2p? I can't seem to access the site.

Works for me

 

[fr0stbyte]

Works for me

The last time it was just an issue with their host. Now I end up with the following message:

對不起，您的帳號尚為等待驗證會員，或您的 IP 地址不在被允許的範圍內，無法訪問本論壇。

Means that my membership hasn't been confirmed yet (it was already confirmed so I dunno why this message turned up) or my IP address was banned. I'd understand if I really did something wrong. This just sucks. End of rant.

 

[Ceewan]

The last time it was just an issue with their host. Now I end up with the following message:

對不起,您的帳號尚為等待驗證會員,或您的 IP 地址不在被允許的範圍內,無法訪問本論壇。

Means that my membership hasn't been confirmed yet (it was already confirmed so I dunno why this message turned up) or my IP address was banned. I'd understand if I really did something wrong. This just sucks. End of rant.

hmmmm if you have accessed the site before they probably log or have the ability to view IPs but I seriously doubt that you are only allowed to access the site from any single IP. Never found a site that did that, thats why passwords are assigned. If your IP range has been banned for some reason but your membership not revoked you could try to access via a web proxy. Some of these are very handy by themselves and I often use them inconjunction with other proxies. One of the best at the moment would have to be:
http://www.hidemyass.com/

also good is:
http://www.ijapan.org/blue/
although I have had my access blocked to certain sites using this one and had to switch to hidemyass.com/ instead it can be very good at connecting to Japanese sites that block outside countries access.

The internet is a very lawless and uncivilized land and it is still very virgin territory. Goverments fear this and corporations lament over the free exchange of ideas, knowledge, and immaterial goods which threaten to lessen their power over others or their profit margin. It is possible that one day they will be finally have success but I can only hope that their successes will continue to be minor and cost them more time, money, and energy than they are worth.

 

[fr0stbyte]

hmmmm if you have accessed the site before they probably log or have the ability to view IPs but I seriously doubt that you are only allowed to access the site from any single IP. Never found a site that did that, thats why passwords are assigned. If your IP range has been banned for some reason but your membership not revoked you could try to access via a web proxy. Some of these are very handy by themselves and I often use them inconjunction with other proxies. One of the best at the moment would have to be:
http://www.hidemyass.com/

also good is:
http://www.ijapan.org/blue/
although I have had my access blocked to certain sites using this one and had to switch to hidemyass.com/ instead it can be very good at connecting to Japanese sites that block outside countries access.

The internet is a very lawless and uncivilized land and it is still very virgin territory. Goverments fear this and corporations lament over the free exchange of ideas, knowledge, and immaterial goods which threaten to lessen their power over others or their profit margin. It is possible that one day they will be finally have success but I can only hope that their successes will continue to be minor and cost them more time, money, and energy than they are worth.

Heh.. Capitalists will never cease to gain power over lowly individuals. I agree with you. Thanks for the tip!