Japanese Government Considers Strengthening Copyright Law

Yahoo Japan News reports that the Private Music and Video Recording subcommittee of Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs held a meeting on December 18 to discuss plans to revise Japanese copyright law to outlaw the act of downloading illegally distributed copyrighted material. Under current Japanese copyright law, uploading copyrighted material to the internet without authorization is illegal, but downloading content illegally distributed online is legal provided that the download is for personal, non-commercial use. Downloading illegally distributed copyrighted material has been illegal in America since the implementation of 1997’s No Electronic Theft (NET) Act.

After issuing a request for public comments, the subcommittee received an unprecedented 7,500 responses. Reportedly, the vast majority of Japanese public response to the proposed law opposes making downloading copyrighted material illegal.

Source: Anime News Network