Japanese man gets suspended jail sentence, fined for posting Steins;Gate gameplay

If only he had a time machine...

07 September 2023
by rawmeatcowboy 1
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Back in May, Japan Today reported that a 52-year-old from Nagoya, Japan had been arrested for uploading gameplay from Steins;Gate: My Darling’s Embrace to YouTube. This uploaded footage included the game’s ending and was monetized. The Miyagi Prefectural Police made the arrest based on the suspicion of copyright infringement.

This was the very first arrest made in Japan made in relation to uploading gameplay from a videogame. Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association, along with Steins;Gate rights holder KADOKAWA, had been working together on this arrest. KADOKAWA previously set guidelines on what could be shown in videos, and the 52-year-old broke those rules. Apparently the suspect admitted to uploading the videos and also knew it was illegal.

Today, we’ve learned that the man was given a two-year prison sentence, which was suspended for five years. He also has been fined 1 million yen ($6,780). As long as the man pays his fine and stays out of trouble, he won’t have to spend any time in jail. (h/t VGC)

[VGC]

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Comments (1)

mystikoi

8M ago

This is awful and the single most draconian enforcement of copyright law I have ever seen. Even though he might not go to jail, the fact that they were pushing for it so much and he just barely got out of that is very troubling. Nintendo can already be bad sometimes but if they ever got this extreme, I might stop playing their games. Also worth noting that by contrast, manga author Nobuhiro Watsuki was fined only 200,000 yen and given no prison time for owning massive amounts of child pornography.

Edited 1 time