October 29, 2009
It’s Official: Sharing Is Good For Us
Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2009 There’s been an immense amount of horse manure and baloney (mmm, tasty…) talked about online file-sharing and the technologies, such as BitTorrent, that surround it. So it was with a mixture of shock and disbelief that we received the news that a Japanese court actually approves of file-sharing […]
By Metropolis
Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2009
There’s been an immense amount of horse manure and baloney (mmm, tasty…) talked about online file-sharing and the technologies, such as BitTorrent, that surround it. So it was with a mixture of shock and disbelief that we received the news that a Japanese court actually approves of file-sharing software. Kinda.
The particular program, a locally brewed peer-to-peer client called Winny, is a firm favorite in these parts and, naturally, a long-standing target for the authorities.
In ruling that Winny’s developer, Isamu Kaneko, should be cleared of a previous conviction for copyright violations concerning ripped-off movies, the Osaka High Court decided that his software was not to blame. Instead, the judge applied the amazing power of common sense and set the hero coder free, pointing out that P2P software actually has legal uses and, anyway, Kaneko couldn’t possibly be held liable for other people’s actions. Yay.
