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Judge Compares Anime File-Sharing to Stealing Bread

Judge Kawasaki City, and claimed that Maki was motivated by the desire to raise his reputation among online s. After the court adjourned, the defense counsel said, "The defendant was not stealing anything. Because of the malicious denotation [of the term 'stealing'], it is not an appropriate comparison."

While Maki itted to the facts of the indictment during the trial, his counsel sought a suspended sentence. Under questioning, Maki said he began competing with others on how fast he can spread anime via the Share file-sharing program to gain recognition on bulletin-board sites. Judge Satō then said that Maki's actions "were very similar to shoplifting large amounts of bread, and instead of eating it yourself, distributing it for free. You were only doing it for attention, instead of out of maliciousness."

Moriyoshi Inoha, another person arrested on the same day in May for distributing sentenced for using other programs to share files without permission, Maki, Inoha, and Takahiro Ōtomo from Hiroshima Prefecture were the first in Japan to be arrested for allegedly using Share, a program that had promised high anonymity for its s. (Ever since security researchers found flaws in Share in 2006, other successor applications have been developed.)

Source: Kyoto Shimbun

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