Arrested In Japan For Showing People A New Pokemon Character A Few Days Early?

from the copyright-laws-gone-mad dept

Tue, Nov 9th 2010 10:12am — Mike Masnick

In certain countries (including the US), the punishment for copyright infringement can be much higher if you distribute a "pre-release" offering. This is really designed to go after people "leaking" music or movies or whatever before their official release dates. However, over in Japan, it appears that such a law has been used to arrest a guy who leaked a few images of "unrevealed" Pokemon characters a few days before they were officially revealed. Copyright infringement is the reason for the arrest. I'm having a difficult time figuring out what kind of "harm" this guy did. It's not as if revealing the characters early makes it so that people are less likely to buy the new Pokemon game in which these characters were appearing. Imagine if this guy were a reporter for a publication that covered such games, and he got a leak or a tipoff and published a story about those same characters? Would it still be "copyright infringement"?

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Filed Under: copyright, japan, pokemon

30 Comments

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Marcus Carab (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 9:18am

Don't Pokemon designs fall under the whatever part of "music or movies or whatever"?

I mean, I'm not saying I get it, but why can't Pokemon characters be as important to them as a new album or film? Of course, I don't support the prosecution of movie & film leakers either - but I'm not sure why this is any different.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 9:33am

!
Overreaching-Law-Osuar, I choose you!

Sadly, it is not very effective....
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 9:59am

Re:
As much as I don't want to admit it, Pokemon is a form of art and should be protected the same. How that protection is dished out is what I have a problem with. A fine maybe, jail time is a little much. I'm not even sure that a fine isn't going to far, I just know that jail is for those who are a danger to themselves or others, not Pokemon.
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iamtheky (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 10:39am

2 weeks early is a bit more than a few days. Moreover, should the length of time it was made available prior to release be of any relevance at all?

Just seems that the empathetic side tends to deflate the timeline as if "it was only a couple of days early" should bring about lighter judgement.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 10:46am

Re: Re:
Agreed - jail is ridiculous and, frankly, fines are usually ridiculous too. The whole thing is ridiculous. But there's no objective distinction I can see that makes it more ridiculous when it comes to Pokemon.
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halley (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 10:48am

I'm not condoning the over-reaction on the part of this case, but it also looks like this is another techdirt over-reaction. This is a very common set of circumstances, and some of my sympathy goes to the creative staff whose parade was just rained upon.

To draw an analogy, the Japanese market builds up cartoon characters at events as large as the annual Detroit Auto Show. Think of all the secrecy around "mule cars" on unpublicized demonstrations, or of the iPhone 4 debacle. If you're pushing a ton of money into building buzz for a new show, new product or a new story arc of a long-running series, I can see being a bit protective of the trade secret... no mystery buzz, no audience.
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RD, 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:08am

Re:
"I can see being a bit protective of the trade secret... no mystery buzz, no audience."

FAIL. Lets be VERY clear here: A new Pokemon character IS NOT A TRADE SECRET. Man, you copyright apologists will go to ANY lengths to justify your iron-fisted control over all culture for eternity.

Also FAIL2: Bullshit that there wont be an audience. Thats just false on its face and exposes you right there.
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halley (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:11am

Re:
(meant 'unpublicized testing' above)

To add: Trade secrets have very weak protections: once it's out, it's out. Copyright is the current cudgel of choice, and it applies in this case. To "Chronno S. Trigger [sic]" above, if the leaker isn't fined and isn't jailed, what do you suggest should happen, to (1) rectify this case, and (2) disincent others from making similar leaks?
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Jeremy7600 (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:14am

Leaks have a way of INCREASING demand, not reducing it.

They create more interest, not less.

I'm with Mike, I don't see what the issue is. So 500 or 500000 people found out early. There are still plenty of other people who won't see the leaked material and will see it when it is properly announced.

All the leak does is generate MORE buzz.

I read all the Cataclysm leaks last year before Blizzcon 2009. I didn't go to Blizzcon or watch any of it or pay attention live. If I had I wouldn't have paid attention to the leaks, because there wouldn't have been any surprise. Yet my interest was piqued because I wanted to know if the LEAKS WERE TRUE.

The leaks didn't make me less interested, they made me more interested.

Why is this a bad thing?
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Jeremy7600 (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:15am

Re: Re:
Rectify?

Free Publicity.

Case closed.
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:18am

Re:
But if you remember, we also had a problem with the crap that happened with the iPhone 4.

I would also like to point out that these are just six of the hundred or so that were released in that set. So, not much rain on that parade. Definitely not enough to warrant arrest.
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iamtheky (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:20am

Re: Re:
YAY! artists should have zero control over when their work is released. I mean after all you are saving our marketing people from doing the work so we should pay the leakers.

Sounds an awful lot like the Cooks Source response in regards to the free editing and pulication she did for the goods she stole.
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Freak, 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:21am

Re: Re: Re:
Try an analogy.

A pokemon, or a few pokemon, are not the game. They are part of it.

Imagine it more as, a few days before its release, someone leaked pictures of a couple of costumes that had been used in the film.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:23am

Too bad the article does not mention the relationship between this individual and the company. An employee? A friend of an employee? Other?
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:27am

Re:
Leaks only create more interest is the 'whatever' doesn't suck.

A leaked sucktastic movie, for example, would have no theatre patronage, because everybody would know in advance how bad it really was.

A leaked awsomeazing movie, on the other hand, would have higher opening weekend theatre audiences than it would have otherwise.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:31am

Yes, but what was the new character doing???
http://asickler.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/the-best-friend-i-never-knew-i-had/
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:32am

Re:
he should have used wikileaks
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:44am

Re: Re:
I agree with Jeremy7600, I don't think anything wrong happened here. Some pics were leaked, more hype was built up. I don't know how that's bad.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:51am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
I see what you're saying, though I'm not sure if it's an entirely fair analogy. Pokemon is a merchandising *empire* based entirely around the whole "gotta get em all" idea. Perhaps these Pokemon are being unveiled in this particular game, but what they really represent is an addition to the pantheon of characters that is no doubt going to involve countless releases from toys to stickers to god-knows-what-else.

Though the same, I suppose, could be said of movie costumes sometimes - and I suspect in those instances, the movie producers would react in the exact same way.

But this is one of those instances where I have been sucked into defending something I disagree with over one quibbly little point. Overall this whole situation is dumb: I'm just not convinced it's dumber than countless similar situations.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2010 @ 11:54am

Re: Re: Re:
What did he steal?
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Freak, 9 Nov 2010 @ 12:20pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Yeah, I pretty much agree, and yeah, that was exactly the thought behind the analogy.
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Mojo, 9 Nov 2010 @ 12:35pm

I agree that the main issue here is the fact that an individual "leaked" the images and not the press. I mean if it's illegal and punnishable with jail time to show off pre-release images of these characters, then why even bother with secrecy?

The reason they (and Apple and everyone else) keep a cloak over their new goodies is because it's perfectly legal for the press to run with a leak and spill the beans.

So why is it ILLEGAL for some guy to do the same?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2010 @ 1:13pm

>However, over in Japan, it appears that such a law has been used to arrest a guy who leaked a few images of "unrevealed" Pokemon characters a few days before they were officially revealed.

I wouldn't be too sure if some pre-release law was used. There have been a number of stories over the past couple years from Japan of people being arrested from uploading TV shows onto the internet after the TV show aired, or other media.

Some examples for some Japanese animated shows being uploaded

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-30/10-arrested-in-japan-for-uploading-via-s hare-program

Quote from the article, what they were arrested for uploading
[quote]
1. 40-year-old male company employee from Sapporo (Ranma � television series)
2. 23-year-old unemployed male from Toride (Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito)
3. 47-year-old male company employee from Nagano (8 musical tracks from Victor Entertainment, SME Records, Sony Music Records, Avex Entertainment)
4. 23-year-old male company contract employee from Sayama (music from Ai Otsuka and Kobukuro, Back to the Future Part III, Death Note, Death Note: The Last Name, others)
5. 37-year-old male local government employee from Tsu (Mobile Suit Gundam 00)
6. 44-year-old male company employee from Jōyō (Lorelei)
7. 37-year-old self-employed male from Yokohama (Wii Music, Wii Sports Resort)
8. 57-year-old unemployed male from Komatsushima (unspecified television anime)
9. 40-year-old unemployed male from Okayama (Dragon Ball Kai, Fresh Precure!, Fullmetal Alchemist)
10. 30-year-old male game center employee from Chikugo (unspecified anime)
[end quote]

Of the above, most noticeably the first example was from uploading Ranma 1/2, a show that originally aired roughly 20 years ago.

A couple more recent stories of individuals

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-01-27/male-arrested-in-japan-for-uploading- via-perfect-dark

Person was arrested for uploading episode #38 of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-06-10/2nd-man-arrested-for-uploading-ani me-via-perfect-dark

[quote]
The Sports Nippon newspaper reports that Kyoto's High-Tech Crime Task Force has arrested a 43-year-old self-employed man named Noriaki Matsumoto on Thursday for allegedly uploading anime online, without the copyright holders' permission, using the Perfect Dark file-sharing software.
[end quote]
He was suspected of uploading about 1000 episodes, but was arrested for uploading one particular episode of a show shortly after it aired on TV.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2010 @ 1:14pm

>However, over in Japan, it appears that such a law has been used to arrest a guy who leaked a few images of "unrevealed" Pokemon characters a few days before they were officially revealed.

I wouldn't be too sure if some pre-release law was used. There have been a number of stories over the past couple years from Japan of people being arrested from uploading TV shows onto the internet after the TV show aired, or other media.

Some examples for some Japanese animated shows being uploaded

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-30/10-arrested-in-japan-for-uploading-via-s hare-program

Quote from the article, what they were arrested for uploading
[quote]
1. 40-year-old male company employee from Sapporo (Ranma � television series)
2. 23-year-old unemployed male from Toride (Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito)
3. 47-year-old male company employee from Nagano (8 musical tracks from Victor Entertainment, SME Records, Sony Music Records, Avex Entertainment)
4. 23-year-old male company contract employee from Sayama (music from Ai Otsuka and Kobukuro, Back to the Future Part III, Death Note, Death Note: The Last Name, others)
5. 37-year-old male local government employee from Tsu (Mobile Suit Gundam 00)
6. 44-year-old male company employee from Jōyō (Lorelei)
7. 37-year-old self-employed male from Yokohama (Wii Music, Wii Sports Resort)
8. 57-year-old unemployed male from Komatsushima (unspecified television anime)
9. 40-year-old unemployed male from Okayama (Dragon Ball Kai, Fresh Precure!, Fullmetal Alchemist)
10. 30-year-old male game center employee from Chikugo (unspecified anime)
[end quote]

Of the above, most noticeably the first example was from uploading Ranma 1/2, a show that originally aired roughly 20 years ago.

A couple more recent stories of individuals

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-01-27/male-arrested-in-japan-for-uploading- via-perfect-dark

Person was arrested for uploading episode #38 of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-06-10/2nd-man-arrested-for-uploading-ani me-via-perfect-dark

[quote]
The Sports Nippon newspaper reports that Kyoto's High-Tech Crime Task Force has arrested a 43-year-old self-employed man named Noriaki Matsumoto on Thursday for allegedly uploading anime online, without the copyright holders' permission, using the Perfect Dark file-sharing software.
[end quote]
He was suspected of uploading about 1000 episodes, but was arrested for uploading one particular episode of a show shortly after it aired on TV.
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 1:31pm

Re: Re:
If it's a sucktastic thing, what are the odds it will be leaked? What are the odds anyone is going to care enough to look at a leak?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2010 @ 1:49pm

Re: Re:
Brilliant!
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Memyself, 9 Nov 2010 @ 2:49pm

How dare the Pokemon people expect to coordinate and manage the timing of the publicity events over the creations they invest in! Obviously, the fans know much better than the professional marketing strategists employed by the Pokemon people, and any leaked info is instantly equal or greater to any carefully planned marketing strategy.
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Chris in Utah (profile), 9 Nov 2010 @ 3:02pm

Re: !
Train in a another field of law silly, your bound to figure it out then!
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Memyself, 9 Nov 2010 @ 3:19pm

Re: Re: Re:
Pretty damn good.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2010 @ 6:18pm

Japan have some of the world's most draconian copyright laws in the world.

That is why no innovations in the digital realm are bound to happen there.
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