Back in May this year, four Japanese individuals were referred to the prosecution on suspicion of violating domestic copyright laws by posting “spoiler heavy” written summaries of movies on their website alongside related screenshots. According to a new follow-up by report by Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), following subsequent charges, the two men and two women were handed guilty verdicts at the Sendai District Court on August 3. The verdicts were as follows:
Company executive A: 2 years’ imprisonment with a 3-year suspension, and a fine of 1 million yen
Company employee B: 1 year’s imprisonment with a 2-year suspension
Writer C: A fine of 500,000 yen
Writer D: A fine of 300,000 yen
Operating company: A fine of 1 million yen.
According to Japanese media outlet Anime Anime, the website in question hosted summary articles on over 8,000 different films. Notably, in November 2023, the group posted detailed transcriptions of works copyrighted by CODA member companies like Toho (Godzilla Minus One), Toei (Shin Kamen Rider), KADOKAWA (Kubi) and Tsuburaya Productions (Shin Ultraman).
Based on the investigation and public trials held on July 24 and August 3 respectively, the court concluded that “the defendants had conspired to commit organized copyright infringement and had operated their website in questions with the intentions to make profit.” CODA calls it an “extremely rare” case in which the operating company itself was also referred for prosecution and charged with violating the Copyright Act.
While some would consider the practice to be in a legal “grey zone,” CODA describes the act of publishing detailed written summaries of the entire story of a movie as “beyond the scope of lawful quotation.” It argues that such acts may create a situation that allows readers to roughly understand the full story of a movie without actually watching it, reducing willingness to pay for legitimate content distribution services, and thus “seriously impacting the content industry.” Interestingly, this has been the second case this year in which writers and website operators were found liable for contributing to monetized sites that centered around movie plot summaries. Back in April, a website administrator in Tokyo was charged with violating the Copyright Act for posting “spoiler articles” containing written digests of movie and anime plots. The man was sentenced to one year and six months of prison with a 4-year suspension and a penalty of 1 million yen. A writer who worked for the website was also found guilty on July 16 and fined 500,000 yen.
