I have seen many places, as well as locals telling me, that they won't be paying attention to streaming of videos though.

lol and they laugh at China

Hopefully this laws hits US and EU as well.

/sarcasm?

Hahaha, Canada makes a tax instead and protects its people 🙂.

Hopefully this laws hits US and EU as well.

Dude, WTF is wrong with you?

Dude, WTF is wrong with you?

This. As a musician, as I understand the business currently: There's no money in traditional record sales any more really, at least not through major labels. Things like Bandcamp are the way forward, as that way, the artist gets 90% of the profits rather than 5% from a record deal. Touring makes artists far more money than record sales, with merch sales being more important than ever. Japan is definitely going in the wrong direction with this.

How much of Japan's revenue is generated by the music industry ? Jailing teenagers/students downloading youtube videos is'nt going to help Japan's economy. Whos going to employ them when they come out of prison ? Less employed people means less money for the country.

Hopefully this laws hits US and EU as well.

Already hit the US.....more than 30 years ago.... Just impossible to enforce as intended.

This. As a musician, as I understand the business currently: There's no money in traditional record sales any more really, at least not through major labels. Things like Bandcamp are the way forward, as that way, the artist gets 90% of the profits rather than 5% from a record deal. Touring makes artists far more money than record sales, with merch sales being more important than ever. Japan is definitely going in the wrong direction with this.

Guy I work with is in a band. He said the same thing.... touring + merch = pay day. Must be right if multiple musicians (in different countries no less) are saying it.

Well something has to be done. There are economic consequences from copyright theft. Nobody can really quantify exactly how large they are, but they're still there. Jail is a silly punishment though.

Well, if people can't pay the fines....the fines are pointless. So, exactly what can you do? In the US the current penalty is a maximum of up to $250,000 and up to 5 years in prison per instance....so far, that deterrent hasn't worked.... Maybe it'll work better in Japan....

when it will come to eu, with money i escaped from paying terabytes of data, movies, music and games, i will build an armory in my house and then come to arrest me, i'll not be back like terminator, i will be there to kick your @$$... 😉

Til they nuke you off the face of the earth, even if that means taking other people with you. 😉

This. As a musician, as I understand the business currently: There's no money in traditional record sales any more really, at least not through major labels. Things like Bandcamp are the way forward, as that way, the artist gets 90% of the profits rather than 5% from a record deal. Touring makes artists far more money than record sales, with merch sales being more important than ever. Japan is definitely going in the wrong direction with this.

If it wasn't for filesharing I wouldn't even know half of the bands on my HDD. Thus I'd never go to a performance of those artists. Instead of this **** they should find a good way to provide people music on the internet for a low price.

This. As a musician, as I understand the business currently: There's no money in traditional record sales any more really, at least not through major labels. Things like Bandcamp are the way forward, as that way, the artist gets 90% of the profits rather than 5% from a record deal. Touring makes artists far more money than record sales, with merch sales being more important than ever. Japan is definitely going in the wrong direction with this.

That's why some bands are promoting their songs through free downloads on some torrent sites, so that people know them and want to come to their tours..

How about if they find you were guilty of significant filesharing activity (and I mean actual proof was found, something that's not easy to do), they come and smash all your computers? That would certainly get me to stop filesharing, if I did. (not serious idea, har har)

That would stop most people....

Theft of copy on an individual basis should be left to the civil courts. Law enforcement the world over can hardly deal with the **** already reported. I bet Japanese cops are laughing about this tripe. Well I hope they are!

Problem is, the burden of proof required in a civil trial. In a criminal trial, it's up to the prosecutor to prove "beyond any reasonable doubt" that you committed the act you're accused of. In a civil trial, you only have to create a reasonable doubt....while the plaintiff must prove all claims with a very limited ability to collect "evidence". The RIAA was well known for using malware to collect "evidence" to use in their civil cases. The US Gov't made that practice a criminal act...which is why we don't see nearly as many cases involving the RIAA anymore. So, they see the only alternative as using law enforcement to do their dirty work for them. I agree with you to an extent. I think it should be left as a civil matter until proven damages reach a certain point. Basically, if the provable damages exceed your ability to pay restitution, it should become a criminal matter. Now, by "provable", I mean they should be required to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that your actions caused an exact dollar figure in damages....not some BS estimate based on current laws. So, if you steal 1000 songs that all sell for $1 on iTunes....you owe exactly $1000 in restitution. However, if you steal 100,000 songs, sold for $1.30 on iTunes, yet you can't possibly come up with the money....it becomes a criminal matter.

They should be worried about commercial counterfeiting and not random home users downloading a bunch of stuff over the Internet. Waste of police time and tax payer money in the courts and prisons.

The problem is that there's too many elderly people in charge over there that are trying their hardest to stick to the past in a technological era. Whatshisface Ishihara is the biggest problem. He seems to hate everything that younger people like (typical adult eh?) He thinks adult anime (voilence, nudity, etc) is a disgrace to the Japanese people, and bringing down their traditional ways or corrupting the youth. He also always has this look on this face that makes me want to punch him. After he says this crap, he's like "you wouldn't punch a guy with glasses".

Well, I do hope he retires soon... or, as much as i hate to say it. Dies of old age!

Hopefully this laws hits US and EU as well.

Yeah, downloading an episode of the Walking Dead should earn you a 2 year prison sentence.

i must've posted this image a billion times, so here it goes again lol http://i.imgur.com/tnWnU.jpg

You forgot the accompanying classic: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/SweetMaenad/MP3_man.jpg

Stealing is stealing. I bet those downloader wouldn't walk into a shop and steal the same game.

You guys can call it whatever you want to try and justify but it's theft.

already wrong here, so the foundation of your entire perspective is flawed.

You have to donate your left eye and left leg to a starving rook. If you don't have eyes and legs then you have to donate your neck to a nine foot scarecrow with two heads as a spare.

two cents: It is not stealing, it is duplication. If I were to walk into the recording studio of an artist and steal the master tapes, then yeah; it's stealing. Copying a file on a computer, no way hoezay. If a company can prove that I walked into the recording studio and stole the original master file, then I deserve a sentence - if not, I'm no more guilty of anything than someone walking into an art gallery and taking a photograph of the Mona Lisa. In the same token, the music/movie publisher would have to prove that the copy I have is digitally identical to the version they sell - just like the art gallery would have to prove that the digital data of the photograph is a perfect rendition of the thing that hangs on the wall. In other words, as pirated material differs from the original to extensive levels (the encoding method used for the file is 1 such argument) then a court would have to prove beyond all resonable doubt, that this is the case; that the original file and the pirated file are identical in every single way, right down the last remaining digital byte of data. That is unprovable, therefore would have to get chucked out of court. "Ah", you say, "but it sounds/looks the same", that is upto the court to determine of course, but put an audiophile on the stand (the kind of person with a room full of speakers and a white X on the floor for the perfect way to listen to 'The Wall') and they will easily be able to tell the difference between a copy and an original. So, the argument will devolve into the differences in peoples ears....a baseless argument.

^You'd think so aye? But if it were me - I'd take the whip over jail time. I enjoy my freedom to much, and after all it is only pain. Plus you'd have some awesome scares to show off. :whip:

Laws are never preventative; if they were, the prisons would be empty. Similar to the police preventing crime - if they did, no crimes would be committed. The police cannot stop me walking into a shopping mall and mowing down people on a saturday shopping trip with an automatic weapon; if they could, they would be pre-cognitive and look like tom cruise. And in terms of freedom...if you think you are free, I regret to inform you that you are not free, and would welcome that debate in another section of the forums. tldr: behaviour of human beings denotes they will break the law whenever they want, making all laws advisory, not mandatory. It's assumptive logic at its worst.