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NOVEMBER, 28, 2001
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Investigation section
for high-tech crime of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters,
Yamashina Police,Gojo Police searched the home of a man (student
of a university) Ａ(aged 19) in Suginami-ku, Tokyo and a man
(student of a technical collage) Ｂ(aged 20) in Saitama-city
on November, 28, 2001, under the suspicion of copyright infringement
(violation of the right of public transmission) and arrested
them on the same day. They are alleged to have made business
software and the like accessible by Internet users at large
without permission of copyright holders using so-called "file-exchange
software" which enables Internet users to exchange data by directly
transmitting and receiving them between users' computers connected
to the Internet.
File-exchange software such as Napster, Gnutella and WinMx which
realize the Peer-to-Peer system for directly transmitting and
receiving software between users' computers, has been explosively
spreading worldwide since several years ago. Promulgation of
Broadband system caused such various copyrighted contents as
not only music files but also computer program software, video
files and photo albums to be transmitted and received without
consent of copyright holders, raising concern among the world,
for example "Napster" is now in litigation in the U.S.A.
In expectation of coming Internet era, in Japan the right of
transmission from the sever on user's demand was established
under the revision of the Copyright Law in 1986,and the revision
in 1997 provides clearly that an act of placing a copyrighted
work in such a state as it can be transmitted (making transmittable)
without authorization constitutes in itself a violation of the
copyright, even if the work is not actually transmitted. In
all industrialized nations, only Japan and Australia have the
copyright protection systems which are abele to corresponded
to the File-exchange softwares.
Accordingly, in Japan it is made clear that an act of transmitting
any copyrighted work to the public without authorization from
the right holder using any file-exchange software, or to put
it in a state in which it may be transmitted in response to
requests of other Internet users constitutes an act of copyright
violation which is subject to penal punishment. The penal uncovering
of copyright infringement committed by wrongful use of file-exchange
software in the latest case is unprecedented worldwide. It proves
the quite high level of copyright protection in Japan in both
legislation and enforcement.
The man(A) is suspected of infringing the right of public transmission
(right of making transmissible) of copyright holders by repeatedly
and continuously placing such business software as "Adobe Photoshop6.0J"
of "Adobe Systems Incorporated" ,or "Microsoft Visual C++ for
Windows Version 6.0 Standard Edition" of" Microsoft Corporation",
or "一太郎(Ichitaro)" of "Justsystem Corporation" and so on
stored on the hard disc of his PC in his home in a state in
which they can be transmitted to Internet users at large, wrongfully
using WinMx, a file-exchange software, installed in his PC and
connecting it to the Internet. Every time he started his file-exchange
software, he made such a large number of files as 1,001 including
at least 100 titles (amounting to \ 7 millions) of ACCS member
companies available over the line. Further, it is known that
he changed his username frequently , revealing that this is
quite a malignant case which exploited anonymity of the Internet
system.
The man(B) is also suspected of infringing the right of public
transmission (right of making transmissible) of copyright holders
by repeatedly and continuously placing such business software
as "Adobe Photoshop6.0J" of" Adobe Systems Incorporated" and
so on ,wrongfully using WinMx, a file-exchange software, installed
in his PC and connecting it to the Internet. And he is suspected
of infringing the right of public transmission (right of making
transmissible) about not only software but also a large number
of" music files" which are formatted by "MP3".
The Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters ,Yamashina Police,Gojo
Police conducted search in relevant parties to investigate their
act of copyright infringement. According to Police 's request,
ACCS has extended full support to the police investigation by
watching the men for a long time to investigate A and B's act
of making software available for transmission and checking identity
of the software (programs) subjected to their infringement with
the genuine ones.
According to the results, released last July, of a joint investigation
of users of file-exchange software conducted by ACCS and the
Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), it is estimated
that even in Japan as of last May about a million users had
already used file-exchange software. In the broadband age in
which all sorts of contents would be digitized and distributed
through such networks as the Internet, number of users of file-exchange
software would increase without fail and we are afraid lest
copyright infringement should be widespread.
ACCS intends to further promote and enhance copyright consciousness
among the public by aggressively joining forces with other interested
organizations to contribute for achievement of copyright protection
in Japan by utilizing the "Providers' Responsibility Law" (the
Law Concerning Restriction of Liability for Damages of Specified
Telecommunication Service Provider and Disclosure of Transmitter
Information) which passed the latest diet session.
Association of copyright for computer software (ACCS)
Association of copyright for computer software (ACCS) is a public
corporation which was established in 1985,for conducting activity
for protecting the copyright of computer software and promoting
the copyright and thereby for contributing to the development
of culture.
ACCS makes mainly 3 activities that are related to protecting
the copyright, especially that of computer software.
・ Public Information and Education
・ Proposition for Legislation and Policies
・ Support to Right Exercises Activities
Now 226 software maker in Japan and foreign countries in Japan
are the mainly members of ACCS.
(ACCS's Information)
Address Tomonari Foresight Bldg. 5F,5-40-18 Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo
TEL 03-5976-5175
FAX: 03-5976-5177
Piracy Hot Line 0120-76-5175 |
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鑑定及び告訴会社
■アドビシステムズインコーポレーティッド（アドビ システムズ（株））
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