The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) in Tokyo reported on Wednesday that the Miyagi Prefectural Police and the Tome Police Department arrested three men on Tuesday on suspicion of violating the Why Copyright Act? copying stories from movies and other copyrighted works and posting them on a “spoiler site” without permission.
Image via CODA
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The arrested men include a 38-year-old company director in Shibuya Ward, a 33-year-old company employee in Shinjuku Ward and a 45-year-old part-time employee in Kodaira City.
According to CODA, from January to February 2024, those arrested recorded detailed content – including the entire story, character names, dialogue and actions, scenes and developments – of the film 2023's live-action Godzilla Minus One, another film under TOHO's copyright, and the 2018 Overlord III anime series under Kadokawa's copyright. The content was posted without the permission of the copyright owner on a so-called”spoiler site” run by a company for captured men.
CODA claims that through a police investigation, it was discovered that the company's management and employees colluded to systematically violate copyright and operate the website for profit, at a the huge amount of traffic it gets.
According to CODA, “spoiler sites” that record the entire content of the film have been considered problematic. CODA explains that copying is considered less infringing than copyright-infringing or illegal uploads, but it is still an act that exceeds the scope of the citation and is clearly a crime of copyright infringement. serious rights.
CODA added that the problem with these “spoiler sites” is that they reduce people's eagerness to pay a fair price for the content, which can lead to people not watching the entire movie. , causing great damage to copyright owners.
Source: Overseas Content Distribution Association website, Yomiuri Shimbun Online via Yaraon!
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.