crime

Adult video mosaic destroyer’s trial ends with guilty verdict in Kyoto court

26 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Last October, officers from the Kyoto Prefectural Police arrested Masayuki Nakamoto, a resident of the city of Takasago in Hyogo Prefecture. Nakamoto stepped into the sights of law enforcement when he began selling copies of adult videos online, and last week a verdict was reached in his trial.

The videos the 44-year-old Nakamoto had been selling weren’t just simple pirated copies, though, but videos that he had altered to appear uncensored. Japanese adult videos are required by law to obscure the performers’ genitals, with placing a mosaic over them the most common form of compliance. Nakamoto, though, was selling adult videos that looked like they had their mosaics removed.

“Looked like” is because since the mosaic is hard-coded into the image of the commercially released video, it can’t really be removed. Instead, Nakamoto used an A.I. program, which via machine learning gained an understanding of what uncensored genitals look like, then used that knowledge to create a photorealistic simulated visual representation. Nakamoto then placed the simulated image over the mosaic, making the on-screen performers appear completely uncensored, despite this actually being the second round of digital additions to the original footage, and offered his doctored videos for sale online.

All of that brought charges of copyright violation and “display of obscene electromagnetically recorded media” down on Nakamoto once the authorities caught wind of what he’d been doing. Though he was released on his own recognizance, Nakamoto was back in the courtroom of Kyoto district court on June 29, where presiding judge Shinsuke Danjo sentenced him to two years in prison, with the sentence suspended for three years. The harsh two-year sentence, Danjo explained, was because Nakamoto had regularly and repeatedly engaged in selling the videos over the course of roughly 10 months, while the three-year suspension, which gives him the opportunity of avoiding doing any actual jail time, was in recognition of the remorse he has shown since his arrest. Nakamoto was also fined two million yen, which isn’t chump change, but is still quite a bit less than the approximately 11 million yen he reportedly earned selling the videos.

Twitter reactions to the verdict have included:

“So close!”

“[He] made the dream that men have had for so long come true, but has now been suppressed by the power of the state.”

“Thank you for making our impossible dream come true.”

“Our modern-day Jesus has been crucified. How could they treat a man of such holiness like this…”

“Nowadays, you can find uncensored foreign adult videos online pretty easily, but he wanted to see uncensored Japanese ones so much that he went to all that trouble to try to get around the mosaic? I don’t know if that makes him amazing or an idiot.”

Sources: Sankei News via Otakomu, Twitter 

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Man uses AI to “destroy” censor mosaics in Japanese adult videos, gets arrested by Kyoto police

-- Sapporo man arrested for posting URLs to “obscene material” on website

-- Illegal mosaic-free porn business busted after earning over US$1M in revenues

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

26 Comments
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Um, pornhub anyone?

Or so I am TOLD (by a friend). I of course wouldn’t know....

14 ( +15 / -1 )

You can buy a high fidelity sex doll with all the correct anatomy in Japan but can't see the goods in a porno. What a strange land.

14 ( +22 / -8 )

Sounds like an innovator. If there were more guys like this, the Japanese economy would be soaring.

10 ( +17 / -7 )

“Nowadays, you can find uncensored foreign adult videos online pretty easily, but he wanted to see uncensored Japanese ones so much that he went to all that trouble to try to get around the mosaic? I don’t know if that makes him amazing or an idiot.”

According to the article it was a superimposition and they still were not seeing the holy grail of actual Japanese genitalia.

The Japanese courts are experts in the art of punching down and prosecuting the pettiest crimes of those with little power to contest while ignoring the criminals who victimize many members of society daily.

8 ( +17 / -9 )

"And along with this the court and police require Nakamoto to hand over all merchandise for... errr... study purposes."

8 ( +16 / -8 )

A guy with that kind of ability could get a job at a legitimate computer-related company.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

If it were possible, he should also be hit with distributing an addictive substance. Pornography is addictive.

Not according to the DSM 5. Are you a doctor? Or is this just a wild assertion?

With every photo, dopamine is released, and with more pornography and its endless images on the Internet, bursts of dopamine are released. As time goes on, pornography users need more and more photos to get the same feeling.

They then move out of their fantasy realms into the real world of sex trafficking

Another assertion and a false dichotomy. You'd need to show evidence of causality

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Only copyright violations are a relevant charge for Nakamoto. "Display of obscene electromagnetically recorded media" are many more than this case, its definition and law enforcement are quite unclear and arbitrary.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

silly mosaic JAV who really wants to watch it...?

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Does ANYONE really understand why 'porn' is PORN? Mankind's most basic drive, and those that 'abstain' Nature's most sexually deviant individuals, yet somehow portraying our most necessary function as a species and most favorite form of entertainment and pleasure is EVIL. The only rationale I have ever heard when the manipulative religious BS is dismissed and personality disorder discounted is "Um...well...ah...it just IS!" [sigh]

4 ( +11 / -7 )

I want this technology to watch Japanese news. Ordinary people crossing the road, and even software to remove masks from tv presenters.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

The whole mosaic thing is ridiculous, especially in this internet age. Get with the times, Japan. Remove the mosaic and hire some decent camera-men, and you might even be able to export JAV.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Anyone can remove the mosaic on their own PC, if it is powerful enough. There is a project on GitHub. Look it up and thank me later!! https://github.com/HypoX64/DeepMosaics

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Japanese adult videos are required by law to obscure the performers’ genitals, with placing a mosaic over them the most common form of compliance.

Pointless law.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Or pornzog, porntube, redtube, Nico nico (mainly for asia- but still uncensored- go figure)

(Vigorously takes a memo for “research” purposes only...)

1 ( +2 / -1 )

There are plenty of Porno videos online uncensored and without a mosaic of any kind, so why is he doing it??

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Japan is a country of paradoxes. The country that requires by law to place mosaics on the performers’ genitals in adult video, and at the same time a country that created hentai anime/manga, including lolicon manga and all the most perverted media.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Did I wake up in a previous century? Forsooth, I'd better check ye Google for witch trials.

I wish we could see a sample of this guy's attempt to restore the movies. Reminds me of those elderly Italian and Spanish ladies that 'restore' Renaissance frescoes every few years with smiley faces.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Should he alao be criticized for disseminating material that demeans women, or praised for disseminating material that shows women displaying their empowerment?

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

People still pay for porn?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Um, pornhub anyone?

Or pornzog, porntube, redtube, Nico nico (mainly for asia- but still uncensored- go figure)

Hell there are more streaming sites out there than I can remember.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Contrast the massive sex industry found all over Japan with the judicial verdict and the words ‘double standards’ come to mind…

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Just say NO!

-10 ( +0 / -10 )

If it were possible, he should also be hit with distributing an addictive substance. Pornography is addictive.

With every photo, dopamine is released, and with more pornography and its endless images on the Internet, bursts of dopamine are released. As time goes on, pornography users need more and more photos to get the same feeling.

They then move out of their fantasy realms into the real world of sex trafficking.

-17 ( +0 / -17 )

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