Since October 2012, Japanese users who download copyright material from the Internet, may be criminnaly prosecuted and could face imprisonment. However, the Recording Industry Association of Japan considers such measures to be insufficient and, therefore, insists that ISPs install spying technology, that automatically blocks unauthorized downloads.
Earlier, the Japanese government approved amendments to the Copyright Act providing the authorities the right to establish the measure, which implies up to two years in prison for downloading copyright materials.
Moreover, the Recording Industry Association of Japan has developed a spying system, that automatically detects the unauthorized music downloads. For the system to work it should be implemented into ISPs’ networks.
The system carries out monitoring of users’ connections and compares the data that is downloaded from the Internet with digital data presented in its database. When a match is found, right holders may require service providers immediate blocking of infringing materials.
Right holders claim that the new system will be useful for ISPs, as they can potentially avoid liability for copyright infringements carried out by their customers.
Such actions of Japanese government caused the series of DDoS-attacks on several sites, namely the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Supreme Court of Japan.
Anonymous initiated the operation OpJapan saying: “Japan, home to some of the greatest technological innovations throughout history has now decided to go down the path as well and cave into the pressures of the content industry to combat piracy and copyright infringement. We at Anonymous believe strongly that this will result in scores of unnecessary prison sentences to numerous innocent citizens while doing little to solve the underlying problem of legitimate copyright infringement.”
