Three Japanese men were arrested last January because of suspicion of copyright infringement or infringement of public transmission rights. The three were accused of illegally distributing the hit Japanese anime film "Kimi no Na wa (Your Name)."
In an article posted by CrunchyRoll, The Osaka Prefectural Police announced that they had arrested three men, including a 48-year-old local government worker, for infringing the copyright of Makoto Shinkai's film. The three used the file-sharing software to upload and share the film content without the copyright holders' permission from September to October 2016.
In those time span, they made it available for the general public to download the film, resulting for "Kimi no Na wa" to be a target to piracy. The video file has English and Chinese subtitles and is to be considered as an awards screener for certain people in the film industry.
Police investigations show that the three men infringed the copyright of "Kimi no Na wa" from seven companies including Tho, the film's distributor. Their cases have been sent to the Kishiwawa District Public Prosecutors Office last February 20.
It is not the first time that "Kimi no Na wa" was targeted by online pirates. Last November 2016, Tokyo Reporter posted an article about a 54-year-old unemployed man from Kanagawa Prefecture was arrested by the Shizuoka Prefectural Police for uploading the movie for the purpose of piracy.
The production company has already made an action to combat illegal distributors of "Kimi no Na Wa." They made an official Twitter account called "Movie Kimi no Na wa Production Committee Copyright Manager." The account is dedicated to the copyright protection and it has been posting messages and requests to people not to watch the film through illegal ways such as internet streaming and torrent sharing.
Acclaimed voice actor Junichi Suwabe also called out everyone from patronizing illegal uploading and sharing on numerous films and shows. In an article posted by Anime News Network, the voice actor said that it would be very hard for the production companies to recover their production costs if more people are resorting to free yet illegal ways of watching a movie.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
