3 Japanese Men Arrested for Illegally Distributing Anime

Japan’s Association of Copyright for Computer Software (ACCS) has announced that the Kyoto Prefectural Police’s High-Tech Crime Task Force and officers from five police stations arrested three men on Thursday on charges of uploading anime episodes and images to the Winny file-sharing network. A 35 year old male and an unrelated 39 year old male were arrested for allegedly uploading episodes of the Idolmaster Xenoglossia and Mobile Suit Gundam OO anime series to the internet. A 24 year old male was also arrested on suspicion of uploading a computer virus that used images from the Clannad anime television series without authorization.

Japanese copyright law currently prohibits unauthorized internet uploads of copyrighted material, but does not prohibit downloads of copyrighted material for personal use.

Source: Anime News Network