Japan seeking to penalize unauthorized manga downloads

These laws will be ineffective. People will find a way to get what they want online. Usually people resort illegal downloads when they are unable to obtain the media another way. The industry needs to do away with region locking of content and offer more avenues of consumption.

Shouldn't breach of copyright be a civil offence rather than a criminal one? I'm quite sure that if I took a claim of a similar offence to the police here they would tell me to get lost.

Shouldn't breach of copyright be a civil offence rather than a criminal one? 

If common sense prevailed, yes. But business and lawmakers work together, and governments are getting increasingly draconian.

Websites you visit and what you download can actually be monitored very easily by the government, ISPs and websites you visit.

And hiding your location is trivial using either a VPN with an exit node overseas or TOR. It is a losing battle. I use VPNs all day for work and have to appear to be from different countries a few times a day.

The only way to slow the copyright infringing activities is to make it easier to pay a little monthly to have lots of access to a wide number of manga. The pricing and convenience are important, but convenience is much more important. Unless it is as easy or easier to follow legal methods, then people will stick with BT.

There are many prior examples with music and books. Music subscriptions really started working economically again when monthly streaming services were convenient and the files didn't have any DRM anymore.

why don't the manga co have a web site where for a small charge they can down load the mag, there was a lot of free or illegal down landing of music here in the UK, but there is a lot of co where for a small charge or monthly subscription down load it legally! and why not have law that says you can't down load stuff illegally. if the charge was small enough and probably less than a book, it would be in the interest for everyone and the environment.

Most of the servers where you can see manga online are in Central American countries, South America and Eastern Europe.

To make the manga accessible to everyone you could do the same as the online gaming platform Steam. With a very small monetary fee you can access the official manga translated into many languages to view online. And that money raised to the author. And this would reduce piracy until it disappears. But it has to be a very affordable price. Wassap type.

"The report concluded violators should face imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 2 million yen or both."

I've always felt punishment should match the crime. If one downloads without permission then they should have their own stuff downloaded without permission (or stronger terms: if one takes something, something of their own should be taken). Many websites online have annoying ads that pay for upkeep and purchases, just like tv. Just have companies charge a fee for websites that offer manga online. Side ads, popup ads, banner ads, ads ads everywhere...

I've always preferred print manga, but anyone ever heard of browsing before you buy? Easier to browse online these days.

How about banning child porn magna for starts and then people might actually care?

@scrote

Websites you visit and what you download can actually be monitored very easily by the government, ISPs and websites you visit.

The problem with this particular law is that it almost exclusively affects Japanese companies. Furthermore, the law will only be enforceable in Japan. Therefore, people that pirate these images outside of Japan will be okay. Since most countries do not gain anything from this particular market, they will not make it a law in their countries and will not seek to apprehend those that do it in other countries.

The movie industry is a much different monster. The reason being is that hits the pockets of large businesses in many countries so other countries will pass it as a law and help to enforce it.

People downloading manga in other countries are usually doing it because it is the only way to do so in their own language and its a fan made translation. The owner would see no sale from that anyway so they aren't losing anything. But if you are downloading it in Japan to read the original, when you could just buy it at the bookstore down the street, well that's pretty lame and I've got no sympathy. Same with movies. Just pay for them or you're a thief.

Scanning Manga and uploading would be tricky to catch.. Different formats are uploaded, different platforms, torrent etc, reality check

The government cannot block websites, nor can it monitor what people are downloading. How will it enforce this law?

As long as they don't crack down on Hollywood movies, I'm cool with it.

It is important a law to control illegal downloads. Here in Europe one can download all kinds of manga online