I read an article today regarding Japan and the implement of relatively new online piracy laws. It was just made official that in Japan, anyone who possesses music or movies that were downloaded illegally can go to jail for as long as two years. This may sound like a long time, but in the United States it seems as if piracy laws are much harsher, with the maximum jail time for online piracy instead being 5 years. I wonder why piracy laws are harsher in the United States? Why is it that Japan seems to be a little less concerned with those who download things illegally?
Article: japans-new-fine-for-illegal-downloads-2-years-in-jail.html
Are the punishments actually harsher though? How often do you hear of people going to jail for bootlegging DVDs. Like with music, people have not be caught or prosecuted so I don’t get the sense that they are scared to try to pirate. If people are caught and convicted regularly in Japan, I think Japan would actually have a stricter policy.
From my perspective, both 2 and 5 years are harsh enough. The article says that Japan has the second largest music industry, so it follows that they would want stricter policies. Being an avid fan of contemporary Japanese music, I always wonder why they don’t simply expand their market, allowing United States citizens to legally purchase their music. I think governments/corporations underestimate just what consumers will buy in order to support their favorite artists.
Judging by the article, two years seems to be a somewhat reasonable punishment. In that regard, they are punishing those who collect and obtain the illegal material, but in reality, to stop people from wanting anything would be overwhelming. There are only so many ways to regulate masses of people. On the other hand, the harsher punishment is delivered to those who distribute: 10 years. This clearly shows that “to have” illegal content is bad, but “to give” to others is worse. In order to cut down on what people take, they have to crack down on people that give, and that is exactly what the setup does.
I think two to five years is kind of an extreme amount of time for someone to go to jail especially because there is such a large number of people in the United States who illegally download music. How do you even begin to track down all those people?