It's worth noting that in Japan, copyright violation is a criminal offense rather than a civil offense and can constitute up to 10 years in prison.[1] Even downloading copyrighted materials is a criminal offense there.[2]

[1] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19767970 [2] http://www.wired.co.uk/article/japan-strict-copyright-law

How on Earth does that work with their doujinshi conventions? Why is Comiket not getting raided?

Suing doujinshi artists (or cosplayers, for that matter) for promoting the copyright holders' materials would be in bad taste and would likely drive fans away from the copyrighted material. Considering the reputational consequences and low "reasonable royalty" damages from suing individuals, copyright holders don't have much incentives to shut these conventions down.[1]

[1] http://www.corneredangel.com/amwess/papers/copyright_comics_...

Copyright holders might not, but isn't one of the main distinctions between civil and criminal law that, in the latter case, the state can (and in theory is obliged to) prosecute criminal cases regardless of the copyright holder's thoughts?

In Japan, copyright law can't be enforced without the complaint of the rights holder.[1] If you have some spare time, I'd recommend reading the Copyright Law [2] for the powers that are legally provided to the rights holders and specifically, "Measures Against Infringement" [3]. They're quite fascinating.

Disclaimer: IANAL, much less a Japanese legal scholar.

[1] https://www.tofugu.com/japan/doujinshi-definition/ [2] http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?id=2506&... [3] http://www.cric.or.jp/english/csj/csj5.html

Some IP holders do sue. Banpresto sued a group making parody footage of their flagship game because the group was immensely popular and was making $x00,000 per event.

Basically, as long as you aren't overly successful, they won't come after you.

Also note that you cannot torrent on the vanilla japanese internet. I have a friend in Japan and for him torrents simply don't connect.

What service? I know no one who has ever had any issue torrenting from a home connection. The phones and public WiFi might prevent it however.

I'll have to ask him again. He's a bit tech illiterate, so that might be it. Plus, being there as an ESL teacher you don't want to jeopardize your career with anyone finding out you torrent.

Why was there so much Japanese traffic on the old nyaa.se (now nyaa.pantsu.cat)? Most of the raws are uploaded from Japan.

In the Japan Times article on this it says they suggest that pirated CD sales could be used to fund terrorism... yep..

The piracy/terrorism link has been used often before, an example: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749921225.h...

> March 21 2003

Ah, back the in the MPAA hay-day when they still thought they had a chance:

> Motion Picture Association of America head Jack Valenti - a leader of Hollywood's fight against piracy - continued the terrorism theme in his written submission to the hearing.

> "September 11 changed the way Americans look at the world. It also changed the way American law enforcement looks at Intellectual Property crimes," wrote Valenti - borrowing from an November 2002 article in the Customs Service newsletter US Customs Today.

Reminds me of this old comic: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/53/ed/12/53ed12786...

14 years later and it's still a good political tactic.

So could selling vegetables...

Pirated CD sales could be used to fund terrorism? That's a pretty tenuous link to "counter-terrorism efforts related to the 2020 Olympics."

To be fair, pirated DVDs and CDs have been used by organized crime; no reason to think terrorists wouldn't look for the same revenue stream.

Right, but is finding copyright infringers really the best way to look for terrorists that may be attempting to attack the 2020 Olympics? I mean "counter-terrorism efforts for the 2020 Olympics" is the stated goal of this legislation.

In their (copyright enforcement cartel) mind, it IS terrorism. Remember what Jack Valenti testified before Congress about the VCR[1]:

'I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.'

[1] https://cryptome.org/hrcw-hear.htm

No, I don't think it is.

Who still buys CDs in this day and age? What devices on the market even have a CD player to access content? Seems a bit overreaching.

CDs are still big in Japan.

https://qz.com/711490/why-japan-has-more-music-stores-than-t...

I mean, I'm aware of it, but can't understand why. It used to be they were at the forefront of new technology, but as with their isdn deployments, sometimes being too far ahead leads to dead ends like this one. It's quite an interesting phenomenon.

Having a tangible, beautiful object, often with additional art and conveniently readable and viewable extra information, a dead end?!

From where I sit, almost all the rest of the world are who went wrong, with impoverished, locked-in streaming services from businesses who take everything away the day you stop paying them, and dull audiofile-only downloads.

But we seem to agree that Abe declaring unauthorized CD copying preparation to terrorism is ludicrous...

Not really CDs but items (ex: handshake passes, photos, etc) that are attached to CDs.

If anyone needed further confirmation that the State exists almost solely to ensure the safe flow of capital, this is a big hint.

Won't someone think of the rights holders!

I'm not sure how well that comment will fly over here. (Though I agree with it, it's painfully obvious to anyone paying attention)

IP protection or selling surveillance technology often seems to be the ultimate driver behind these things.

This is probably the result of industry lobbying.

Lobbying doesn't even begin to describe the depth of corruption in Japan. Barriers between the state and industry are pretty thin at best. And this doesn't even get into the fact that Abe's party has long standing ties to organized crime itself.

The aftermath of Fukushima was a pretty clear demonstration of this, where Tepco and government officials teamed up with the yakuza to send their debtors, as well as rounded-up homeless people, to clean up contaminated sites:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/japan-e...

I don't think so; it's a power grab by the (Abe) government, and yes, but to a much lesser extent, their corporate sponsors.

The (bogus and discredited) piracy-terrorism connection has been tried before in the USA and elsewhere; it never really catches on with the public, probably because it's self-evidently something that could only emerge via the anus of a corporate lobbyist.

But that's just the fat on the edges this new law, not the significant bit. This meat of it puts the Japanese government in a more American-style power position: surveillance, and prosecution of intent rather than actual deed.

A tangentially interesting part of this for me is: I work in Tokyo, and I ride my bike to work past the people pictured in the article. They are there, organized, obviously passionate (or at least engaged) in their political protest... but they are virtually all elderly. The picture in the article really is representative of what I see every day. 95% or more, 60+.

Why is that? Sure, retired people might have more free time, but... if only old people participate in your democracy, then your democracy is fucked.

Well their democracy really is fucked so your observation is pretty spot on.

Doubt it. Lobbying influence varies from industry to industry. Both countries try to take extreme steps from time to time on copyright (see SOPA and PIPA attempts in the US), so I'm not sure if copyright lobbying in Japan is worse. I am sure that military, pharmaceutical, oil, and health insurance industry lobbying for example is worse in the US than in Japan.

The economy of Japan wasn't dubbed "Japan inc." for no reason. There was and still is high degree of coordination btwn govt and industry in Japan. See METI.

It's unrelated, but the sentence has an awkward structure that's hard to parse.

Terrorist groups could be punished for planning any one of 277 crimes.

And so could criminal groups.

The "277 crimes" range from arson to copyright violation.

Took me a second to grok it, too.

Draconian IP protections are usually a requirement of hosting the olympics.

More of a reason to keep permanently establish the Olympics in Greece and be done with it. Wherever the Olympics go, corruption seems to follow.

Can't "terrorist groups or criminal organizations" already be "punished for the planning of 277 crimes"?

Is it not already against the law to plan crimes?