Winny software developer aquitted.

[isityours]

Former Tokyo University associate researcher and developer of the Winny file-sharing software, Isamu Kanako, 39, was aquitted on infringment of Copyright Law charges by the Osaka High Court on Thursday last week.

In the Kyoto District Court ruling in December 2006, Kaneko was accused of encouraging users to violate Coptright Law by distributing his peer-to-peer file-sharing software and ordered to pay a 1.5 million yen fine. High Court Judge Masazo Ogura overturned this decision saying "The defendant did not clearly intend to violate the Copyright Law, therefore cannot be charged with abetment.

According to the first ruling, Kaneko put the latest version of the Winny file-sharing system online in September 2003, knowing it would facilitate copyright infringement. The ruling also said he helped two men from Matsuyama and Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, respectively, distribute 28 copyrighted games and movies using the software in the same month. The two men were convicted of violating the Copyright Law.

Yoshiaki Tsuchitani, a lawyer of the Osaka Bar Association who is familiar with copyright issues in the United States, said such rulings are rare in Europe and the United States, adding, "It would discourage software developers who might fear being charged."

Japan plans to make the downloading of illegally copied music an offence but the full details have not yet been released.

Japan's ISPs have been in official cooperation with copyright owners since last year.....http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=1063.


I wonder how this kind of action will affect those of us living in Japan as stories of disconnection all over the world seem to be growing of late.

[Sakunyuusha]

Suppose this man was a gunsmith. Suppose he was charged with the deaths of 28 people who were shot and killed by two men who used this gunsmith's guns to carry out their criminal acts. Suppose the courts could not prove that the gunsmith knew his guns would be used to carry out illegal acts. Or suppose that he knew that some people might use it in that manner, but that that was not his concern, and that he could prove that many other people would use his guns in the right manner.

I think in this made-up example it'd be easy to see why the guy would get acquitted but why his acquittal would have zero impact on the rest of the population.

Likewise, I don't think this ruling will have any effect on you or on the millions of others who download files illegally from inside Japan. This ruling was specific to the creation of Winny, not to the illegal use of Winny.

It's the same story for BitTorrent. The guy who invented BitTorrent can't go to jail because there are legitimate uses for the BitTorrent protocol and he is not liable for the illegal uses of his software which millions of other human beings may enact.

Likewise, the courts are saying, "No, we can't justify throwing the Winny guy in prison on the basis of his having invented Winny. But we can throw anyone in jail for whom we can prove they used Winny to perform illegal activities!"

They probably won't place this guy in jail because (under the table) he's probably been coerced into giving the police all of his computer equipment -- and with that comes all of the IP logs of every single peer he's ever seeded.

[flame_zero]

i think its just the people that are running out of money so they desided to go after this guy, but like Sakunyuusha said and don't think it'll stop people from trying to get free stuff.

[lbhzzz]

then just pay the bill for your hand

[guy]

Don't worry about Winny/Share/PD, or anything else in Japan.

If anything like this is going to blow up, it will blow up in Australia first.



There are now activist groups down under who are blaming Microsoft because personal data encryption features in Windows 7 "gives pedophiles protection to keep harming children". Even though BitLocker (the encryption system) has been available in Vista for years already, and availability of said encryption has absolutely no bearing on how it's used.

http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/1...ds-pedophiles/

As if Microsoft is distributing encryption features with the intent to aid in storing/distributing CP.