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Japan – Taking a screenshot of pirated material on a smartphone or computer will be a criminal act in Japan under a planned change to the Copyright Law.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs plans to submit a bill to the current ordinary Diet session after an advisory council subcommittee approved a sweeping range of practices for the revision at a Feb. 13 meeting.
The planned revision now classifies a much wider group of actions by the general public as copyright violations that could be subject to criminal charges if the user was aware that copyright infringement had taken place.
Such actions include downloading or photographing novels, magazines, pictures, theses and computer programs posted on the Internet without consent from the rights holder.
Even downloading an image, such as an emoticon, illustration or photo, in a private blog and Twitter page would be breaking the law. Users will also be banned from copying and pasting lyrics posted on blogs.
Uploading copyrighted materials without having consent from the rights holder is already illegal in Japan. Downloading is illegal only for copyrighted music and video contents.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs plans to specify a limited range of violations that are subject to punishment, such as imprisonment of up to two years and a fine of up to 2 million yen ($18,000).
Source and full English article: The Asahi Shimbun
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201902140066.html
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