Re-routed from the AnimeUKNews forums:

The Kyoto District Court has found one of three defendants guilty of unauthorized uploading of Gundam and other popular anime with the Share file-sharing program on Friday. Judge Kji Shibata ordered Moriyoshi Inoha, a 41-year-old company employee from Tokyo, to serve one year and six months in prison (with a three-year suspended sentence). Prosecutors has asked for that length of prison time for Inoha on July 4.

One of the other defendants, 34-year-old company employee Kasuhiro Maki from Kawasaki City, is also facing an 18-month sentence from a different judge in the same court. Although others have been indicted and sentenced for using other programs to share files without permission, Inoha, Maki, and Takahiro tomo from Hiroshima Prefecture were the first in Japan to be arrested for allegedly using Share, a program that had promised high anonymity for its users. (Ever since security researchers found flaws in Share in 2006, other successor applications have been developed.)

Japan's Copyright Law prohibits unauthorized uploaders but expressly allows people to download for private use. The Japanese government is pushing for a ban on unauthorized downloads as well, despite receiving thousands of messages from citizens opposing the ban.


Obviously this won't pose an immediate threat to International fansubbers but I imagine in the long run this may put a slight dent in the availability of raw episodes for them to sub.

-- Edited by Man In Black at 21:19, 2008-07-15