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Comment by seishan | Hacker News Reader

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

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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.

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