Court Acquits Creator of Anonymous P2P Software
A court has acquitted the creator of the Winny file-sharing program, overturning an earlier decision which held him responsible for copyright infringements carried out by others.
In 2006, the Kyoto District Court handed out a fine equivalent to around $17,000 to Isamu Kaneko, the creator of the popular Winny software.
Today the Osaka High Court acquitted the 39 year old, overturning the earlier verdict.
Kaneko, a former tutor at the University of Tokyo, was arrested in 2004 after being accused of helping users distribute copyrighted material on the Internet with the software he created.
“Today’s ruling helps not only myself but also other computer engineers in pursuing the development of computer technology,” said Kanecko.
[...] Court Acquits Creator of Anonymous #P2P Software http://freakbits.com/court-acquits-creator-of-anonymous-p2p-software-1008 [...]
Wow!
Awesome news!
Can this be appealed again by the people in an even higher court?
Or is that as far as it’ll go?
Can you guys try and contact him and see how he argued his case?
The article you linked to didn’t really go into detail about it.
I use Winny and other Japanese P2P programs myself and am pretty interested to hear about this.
Bad news in Japan for Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music
Osaka’s High Court has overturned a lower court ruling convicting Winny developer Isamu Kaneko (right) of “assisting violations of the Copyright Law,” says the Mainichy Daily News.
Winny gained world attention lin 2003 because the first people Big Music managed to have arrested in Japan “on suspicion of violating copyright laws” were using it.
But, with an anonymous file-sharing feature, it was developed by Kaneko primarily as a research tool.
Now, “Isamu Kaneko, 39, a former research assistant at the University of Tokyo, was declared not guilty, and will not be required to pay a 1.5 million yen fine levied by a December 2006 Kyoto District Court ruling,” says the story, going on:
” ‘Merely being aware of the possibility that the software could be abused does not constitute a crime of aiding violations of the law, and the court cannot accept that the defendant supplied the software solely to be used for copyright violations,’ Presiding Judge Masazo Ogura said.”
Adds Mainichy Daily News:
“The appeal ruling sided with the defense, saying: ‘Anonymity is not something to be looked on as illegal, and it is not something that applies specifically to copyright violations. The technical value of the software is neutral’.”
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/29553