Japan getting nasty on copyright offenders

[Ed Oscuro]

Helped write Peer-to-Peer software? Arrested.

Featured screenshots ripped from magazines or shown without game companies' consent? Arrested and had his site shut down.

http://www.gametab.com/jump.php?101314

So tell me again why the US has such a skewed legal system compared to Japan, again? O_o

[ManekiNeko]

It gets better (actually, worse). Japan's game companies lobbied to make it illegal to purchase used copies of software. The bill actually stuck until someone finally figured out that it was grossly unethical and overturned it.

JR

[Ed Oscuro]

If they didn't lobby for it, they wouldn't be doing their job, right?

Gah, I guess the Stone software philosophy doesn't apply to movies and games...

Thanks for that tidbit, though!

Also please disregard that awful topic title...been a long day :P

[kevincure]

If you took screenshots from a magazine without permission and put them on your site in the US, you could be charged with copyright infringement too, though most magazine publishers wouldn't bother to sue. Putting up your own screenshots is fine in Japan and the US, though.

As for the used game ban that Japan used to have, the Supreme Court looked at a case in 1908 (I believe it was Bobbs Merrill v Strauss, 210 US 339) here in the States where a book publisher tried to disallow the selling of used copies of its books. Since then, the right to "second sale" has been protected in the US, but it's certainly not an inalienable right in our legal culture either.

[Funkenstein]

Hey, I like the thread title!

Japan... Ms. Jackson if you're nasty.

So anyway, Japan has pretty low crime. Their muder rate is almost nonexistant compared to the US, so copyright infringemant must be pretty high on the to-do list. Being arrested for posting magazine pictures without permission on a web site is still pretty mind blowing though. Half of the high school population here would be behind bars.

[JLukas]

If you took screenshots from a magazine without permission and put them on your site in the US, you could be charged with copyright infringement too, though most magazine publishers wouldn't bother to sue. Putting up your own screenshots is fine in Japan and the US, though.

Semi-OT, where does screenshots of pre-recorded videos fit in, legal-wise? More specifically, taking your own screencaps from videogame promo VHS/DVDs that have trailers, dev interviews or whatnot. Is it OK to use those for a website?

[thegreatescape]

This from a country that still hangs people...

Me thinks they should just be happy software piracy isnt as rampant as it is in some neighbnouring countries and get on to more important matters (of which there are surely plenty) :roll:

[kevincure]

Essentially, unless you've signed an NDA, you can take screen caps from anything you own (promotional or otherwise) completely legally (in the US, at least). All that would count as a copyright violation is if you took a screencap that a magazine had taken and printed and then used that on your own site.