https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/7/23863271/japanese-youtuber-lets-play-copyright-infringement-steins-gate
He received two years in prison and a 1 million yen fine.
Anyone else suddenly struck by an urge to make let's plays of stein's gate in their less draconian copyright law home region?
while i think that two years of prison for this is completely ridiculous, a "let's play" video of a visual novel, it's essentially the same of "playing" a visual novel
Yes, but for those who don't watch anime or play anime games, it can be great to get summaries so you have context for some conversations. Like, if a friend of mine watches a TV show or plays a game when I don't, if I have no interest in watching or playing, I have no context. Maybe I want to support my friends interest without putting in the same hours so it's nice to be able to get a summary or just the important parts so I know what my friend is talking about and can at least converse with them on the basics. (Though I do believe such videos should have giant spoiler warnings)
Japan is very bad in terms of copyrighted stuff. If that person lives overseas this would never have happened.
At this point, aren't the Japanese stifling any discussion about copyrighted content? This has to be stupid, yes?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Japanese court has convicted a man of violating copyright law after he uploaded gameplay and anime videos without publisher permission.
Reported by Japanese paper Asahi Shimbun, the 53-year-old man, Shinobu Yoshida, was sentenced to two years in prison and assessed a 1 million yen fine (or about $6,700 USD.)
Yoshida was arrested in May of this year after uploading gameplay videos of the visual novel Steins;Gate: My Darling’s Embrace back in 2019.
Yoshida also uploaded videos summarizing episodes of the Spy × Family and Steins;Gate anime shows.
CODA characterized the complaint as “malicious cases of posting videos containing content and endings (spoilers) without permission from the rights holders, [...] and unfairly gaining advertising revenue through copyright infringement.”
Asahi Shimbun reported that the prosecution stated Yoshida’s actions were, “a malicious act that tramples on the effort of content production.” They argued that because he uploaded videos that condensed and spoiled anime episodes and videos of gameplay from a visual novel — a style of game that focuses on reading to experience the story rather than through gameplay — consumers would be less incentivized to spend money on either.
The original article contains 281 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 33%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
this is one of the reasons i'm afraid to visit japan. not just immigration.
and btw, fair use isn't a thing over there IIRC. not that would had mattered as gameplay recordings are very derivative.
Japan has one of the most draconian copyright laws in the world. You can't even rent your own books or disks unless the copyright holder allows for it. I've been puzzled at the fact that they have allowed Let's Plays (and memes and remixes and doujin works for that matter) for such a long time.
Yeah its unfortunate that copyright law is abused so easily and often. Seems like it depends from case to case, one time its fine the next its not.
I wish the article did a better job of exploring the subject. It really only presents one side of the story, here.
It clearly states what he did and on what he was prosecuted. How is it one sided? It doesn't quote people from either side but rather states facts presumably from court filings.
If you want arguments on how this is bad or why such things shouldn't be prosecuted, look for an opinion piece. Thats not the job for every news reporting.