Japan expands online anti-piracy laws to penalize ‘leech’ sites, adds content genres

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The government of Japan has amended its copyright law to add manga and magazines to the genres of protected content.  

Existing law had already protected video and music content.

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A new rule that makes pirate Web sites that link to stolen content (which the government refers to as “leech” Web sites) goes into effect on October 1st, with penalties of up to five years in prison, maximum fines of ¥5 million or both.

Read the entire article on The Mainichi (in English)

Why it matters

Manga is one of the most popular categories of media content in Japan.  It only stands to reason that manga content is protected at a level equal to video and music content.

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