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Suspected virus author in Japan arrested for copyright infringement

24 January 2008 22:14 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 4 comments

Although Japan apparently doesn't have any laws to prosecuted virus authors under, that's not stopping officials in that country from going after a 24 year old graduate student suspected of spreading a virus through infected animation files. Ironically it's the same innocuous looking files used to spread the virus that are at the heart of the government's case - for copyright infringement.

It marks the first case of anyone being arrested in Japan over a virus, and seems to have been a reaction to complaints from animation production houses whose copyrights were being violated. Although it's encouraging to see copyright law used for something clearly in the public's fundamental interest, such as bringing a virus author to justice, it's hard not be struck by the irony of the situation.

While distributing malicious code that could potentially have financial ramifications for hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people, the illegal use of cartoon characters, which is unlikely to affect anyone financially, seems to be a high legal priority.

Permalink to this article

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Discuss this article!
jutsu (Junior Member) 25 January 2008 11:18
Im sure its not 'cartoon' but 'anime'. Cartoon for kids, anime for many ages. Some for kids, some for teenager, some for adult and so on. Btw, what the virus do after infect your pc? Is it just an harmless virus? [ + quote]
Jizmak (AfterDawn Addict) 27 January 2008 1:31
The virus allegedly created by Nakatsuji is believed to be of a kind that destroys data stored on the computer or deprives the computer of information. The police said Nakatsuji embedded the virus into the animated images so that it would infect the computers of people who downloaded them. [ + quote]
DancingWD (Newbie) 27 January 2008 4:29
I think I had a nasty encounter withit .. its not evemn a virus just a malware - its not spreading by its self :D you just have to download it and launch it yourself :D the irony that it also displays - dont pirate games r smth :D [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 19 February 2008 2:24
Interesting. [ + quote]