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Kyodo

Japan will aim to tighten its grip on copyrights after a government panel called on Friday for making it a criminal offence to download still images from manga, novels and other literary works without the permission of their copyright holders.
The panel’s final report to the Cultural Affairs Agency pointed to the need to crack down on piracy websites and urged the government to consider broadening the scope of punishable acts, currently restricted to unauthorised downloading of videos and music, to that of all copyrighted materials, including still images.
The report concluded violators should face imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 2 million yen (US$18,000), or both.
The agency is expected to submit a bill to amend the copyrights law and reflect the tighter controls to the regular Diet session starting on Monday.

The government is expected to target not just piracy websites but pirated materials used on blogs by individuals and social networking services.
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The panel report also called for punishing operators of “leech sites” that provide hyperlinks to piracy websites. The government is expected to study later what kind of punishments would be appropriate.
Damage caused to publishers by a major Japanese piracy site Mangamura, which became inaccessible in April last year, was estimated at about 300 billion yen. The website, which once had over 100 million hits a month, hosted unauthorised copies of popular manga titles, including Attack on Titan and One Piece.
The Japanese government had initially sought to legislate blocking access to websites hosting pirated content but gave up after opponents said it could violate the privacy of communication as it requires subscribers’ access data.


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Japan

Unauthorised manga downloads will soon be a criminal offence in Japan

A hoarding advertising your name., a Japanese smash-hit animated film. Photo: Kyodo

TO GO WITH STORY:AFPEntertainment-France-Japan-books-comics(FILES) In this file picture taken 26 janvier 2005, Japanese magas are displayed on the stands of the international comic book festival in Angouleme, on the eve of the opening of its 32nd édition. In the year 2006 alone, more than 4,000 new comic book titles hit the shelves in France and French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland -a three-fold increase since 2000- with more than 40 million copies sold, but in recent years, Japanese mangas have been jostling for elbow room with their French-sounding counterparts. AFP PHOTO/DERRICK CEYRAC/FILES

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Current laws are restricted to unauthorised downloading of videos and music
