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Japan tightens copyright law

June 18, 2009

Japan’s upper house has approved a revision to the Copyright Law making downloading of pirated content illegal. The revision will go into effect on January 1st. Uploading of pirated music and video content is already proscribed, but downloading has been tolerated as long as it is for personal use. Legislators have prescribed no penalties for illegal downloads.

Illegal uploading of video content, particularly cartoons, is rampant at Japanese file-sharing and other sites, however, leading to large losses for Japanese production companies.

Categories: Articles, Content, Regulation, Rights