Andre Yoskowitz
20 Jun 2012 20:35
Japanese legislators are looking to pass a new law that would make piracy a criminal offense with potential jail time.
Anyone convicted of making unauthorized copies of movies, games or other content or downloading the content could face two years in prison or a two million yen (about $25,400) fine.
More importantly, the law would affect anyone making copies of their own DVDs/Blu-rays to their hard drives or making copies to portable devices.
The new law is on the floor of the Upper House, being debated.
"Allowing illegal downloads to exist as they do now will harm the growth of the Internet," argued Lower House member Hakubun Shimomura, a strong supporter.
Member Takeshi Miyamoto took the opposite side: "The illegal flow of material is a problem, but rather than strengthening the penalties, we should bolster the deletion of illegally uploaded content."