Strict penalties will be set in place for downloading illegally uploaded manga, books and other content from the internet as a bill to revise the Copyright Law was passed at the plenary session of the House of Councillors on Friday.
Downloading such content, knowing it is pirated, will become illegal in principle. Criminal penalties will be imposed on those who are regarded as unscrupulous, such as by intentionally and repeatedly downloading such content. The law will go into effect in January of next year.
Previously, penalties were only applied to illegally downloading music and videos, but the revised law will now extend to all copyright materials, including manga, books, news articles and illustrations.
With the law on their side, copyright holders will be able to claim damages for illegal downloads.
Criminal penalties will be imposed for unethical conduct such as repeatedly and continuously downloading content for which an authorized version is available for a fee.
Prosecutors can indict such an offender after receiving a criminal complaint from a copyright holder.
If convicted, a person will be subject to imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 2 million yen, or both.
Exemptions are established to ensure that the public's access to information and content for daily use is not curtailed.
It will not become illegal to download a few frames out of dozens of pages of manga, rough images and other minor offenses.
Downloading derivative works is also exempted from regulation. The law also will allow the public to download crime prevention manuals and other things that are deemed not to unreasonably harm the interests of copyright holders as they are considered special circumstances.
The revised law includes regulations over so-called "leech" websites and leech smartphone apps, which provide links to websites that contain pirated content.
The criminal penalty for operating a website or providing an app of this kind carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison or a fine of 5 million yen or both.
The regulation of leech sites and apps is scheduled to go into effect in October of this year.
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