In 2021, three individuals who had been earning advertising revenue by uploading fast movies online were arrested and prosecuted. The Sendai District Court found the defendants guilty of copyright infringement, including infringement of adaptation rights and the right of public transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe court held that the creation and publication of so-called fast movies, which involves editing copyrighted films into short videos, adding narration to summarize the plot, and making it publicly accessible online, deprive film copyright holders of opportunities to receive legitimate value, undermine the film industry’s revenue model, and may hinder the development of movie culture, which is worthy of severe criticism. In addition, the defendants have committed each crime and repeatedly infringed copyrights in a habitual and professional manner by dividing roles among themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of infringed copyright holders amounts to 21 companies. In light of the view counts of each video, the court found that the amount of damages was expected to be substantial and that the defendants’ financial liability was significant.<\/p>\nSendai District Court, Judgment of November 16, 2021.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nUnder Article 119, Paragraph 1 of the Copyright Act, copyright infringement is punishable by “imprisonment for a term of up to ten years, a fine of up to ten million yen, or both.” However, the three defendants were sentenced to two years in prison with a four-year suspension of the execution of sentence and a fine of 2 million yen; one and a half years in prison with a three-year suspension of the execution of sentence and a fine of 1 million yen; and one and a half years in prison with a three-year suspension of the execution of sentence and a fine of half a million yen, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the judgment, it is stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe crime was committed with the aim of earning advertising revenue based on the view counts, and this profit-driven motive left little room for leniency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, considering the apparent absence of precedents that imposed criminal liability for the creation and distribution of fast movies, even if the illegality of such actions becomes more widely known through this judgment, it may be said that sentencing may shift towards greater severity if the creation and publication of fast movies continues to be rampant. However, as of now, it is appropriate to impose a prison sentence and a fine as a proportionate punishment for a case of this scale, and make suspension of the execution of sentence the standard for first-time offenders.<\/p>\nSendai District Court, Judgment of November 16, 2021.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nTherefore, future copyright infringers who distribute fast movies may face heavier criminal penalties. In the case of “Manga Village,” which had a similar structure to fast movies, the site operator was sentenced to three years in prison, a fine of 10 million yen, and a collection order of approximately 62 million yen for copyright infringement and concealment of proceeds of crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Amount of Civil Damages<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAfter the criminal trial, the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) and 13 member companies of the Japan Video Software Association (JVA) filed a lawsuit for damages. The plaintiffs calculated the total damage caused by fast movies at 2 billion yen and demanded a payment of 500 million yen as a minimum recovery of damages. The defendants in this lawsuit were two of the three individuals who had been arrested and were in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 17, 2022, the Tokyo District Court ordered the two defendants to pay more than 500 million yen in total damages for copyright infringement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because the defendants admitted the acts of copyright infringement (infringement of adaptation rights, infringement of the right of public transmission), the main issue at the tiral was the amount of damages. , The court estimated the damages based on Article 114, Paragraph 3 of the Copyright Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nCopyright Act (Presumption of the Amount of Damage)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Article 114, Paragraph 3: The copyright owner, the owner of print rights, or owner of neighboring rights may fix the amount of damages incurred as being equivalent to the amount of money that the owner should have received in connection with the exercise of the copyright, print right or neighboring right, and may claim compensation therefor against a person that, intentionally or due to negligence, infringes the owner’s copyright, print rights or neighboring rights.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
In assessing damages, the court focused on the fact that YouTube users need to pay a rental fee to watch movies on YouTube’s paid streaming service, and that film copyright holders are expected to receive value for the exercise of their copyright through this rental fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since it costs about 400 yen to watch a movie on YouTube, it was calculated that “it is reasonable to set the damage at 200 yen per view.” The reason for calculating it as 200 yen instead of 400 yen is thought to reflect the handling fee paid to the platform and the fact that the defendants had not uploaded entire movie, but rather edited summaries of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The calculation of the damage amount of 2 billion yen is also based on “200 yen per view.” The total views of the 64 fast movies uploaded by the defendants is about 10 million, so the damage was calculated as 10 million x 200 = 2 billion yen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding the basis for this calculation, the court determined that the method of calculating the damage amount claimed by the plaintiffs was reasonable, and it ordered the two defendants to pay 500 million yen, the amount that the plaintiffs had sought as a minimum recovery of damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Summary: Consult a Lawyer for Copyright Infringement Issues like Fast Movies<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nAs seen in cases like fast movies, malicious copyright infringement can result in severe consequences both criminally and civilly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the case of YouTube, identifying an uploader’s address and real name often takes time. If your copyrighted work is used without permission like fast movies, it is crucial to consider legal action promptly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Introduction to Our Firm’s Measures<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nMonolith Law Office is a legal office with extensive experience in both IT, particularly the internet, and law. In recent years, intellectual property rights, including copyrights, have been attracting attention. Our firm provides solutions related to intellectual property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There has been growing concern over so-called “Fast Movies,” which are short-form illegal movie summary videos that are typically around 10 minutes long. These spoiler videos are created u […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[35,19],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72843,"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58909\/revisions\/72843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monolith.law\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}