A company operating a website that provided detailed spoilers and images of films has been referred to the Sendai District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of violating the Copyright Act. Five men and women, including the company manager, were also referred; the Miyagi Prefectural Police Headquarters and the Minamisanriku Police Station handled the investigation. Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), a major Japanese anti-piracy organization, reports that there are “very few precedents for a corporation being referred to the prosecutor’s office on suspicion of violating the Copyright Act, making this an extremely rare case.“
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The website posted detailed content of films, such as Godzilla Minus One and four other movies copyrighted by Toho, Shin Kamen Rider and two others by Toei, Kubi and one other by KADOKAWA, and Shin Ultraman by Tsuburaya Productions. The site reportedly listed over 8,000 films, describing the names of characters, lines, actions, and scenes.
CODA described these types of sites as malicious, as they allow “visitors to understand the full story of the movie, reducing their willingness to pay a fair price for the content, and may even lead to people not seeing the official movie.” CODA adds that these summaries go beyond the scope of legitimate quotations.
CODA noted that this site is a different party from those arrested last October for similar offenses. They also infringed on Godzilla Minus One, and perhaps more notably for anime fans, Overlord III, prompting KADOKAWA and Toho to file a criminal complaint for copyright infringement in collaboration with CODA. They were charged on November 19.
Source: CODA
Featured image © Satoru Nii, KODANSHA / WIND BREAKER Project
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