No offense to the publishers at Techdirt, but you need to fact check a little better. As has been posted on numerous sites, the new anti-DL law does not cover streaming video at all, as it specifically states in the text of the law. So please stop saying it makes watching YouTube a criminal act.
As much as the western and parts of the Japanese media have been having a virtual frenzy about this law, there's one area that may not be as bad as it seems. If you read the contents of the law (in Japanese) on the Ministry of Cultural Affairs' webpage it specifically states that the law is not intended to cover streaming video. The site adds that even if you know the video you are streaming is an illegal copy you are OK, but if you use a program (or presumably a chrome extension) to save it then you become in violation of the law.
Of course, the police could still try to use the law to overreach and get at YouTube viewers, which could easily happen, and as Anonymous Coward stated above Japan has a lot of bizarre hidden laws that are only whipped out when they need to go after one specific person.
That said, I don't think this means the death of the internet in Japan, and also not the death of YouTube and Nico Nico Douga.
Funny... I also tried to post this same comment in response to Kotaku's freakout article about the new law but my comment was modded out instantly. Methinks they wanted to stir up bunch of frenzied commentors (and get ad hits in the process), so they didn't want anyone peeing on the fire too soon.
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correction
No offense to the publishers at Techdirt, but you need to fact check a little better. As has been posted on numerous sites, the new anti-DL law does not cover streaming video at all, as it specifically states in the text of the law. So please stop saying it makes watching YouTube a criminal act.
Not as bad as it seems...
As much as the western and parts of the Japanese media have been having a virtual frenzy about this law, there's one area that may not be as bad as it seems. If you read the contents of the law (in Japanese) on the Ministry of Cultural Affairs' webpage it specifically states that the law is not intended to cover streaming video. The site adds that even if you know the video you are streaming is an illegal copy you are OK, but if you use a program (or presumably a chrome extension) to save it then you become in violation of the law.
Of course, the police could still try to use the law to overreach and get at YouTube viewers, which could easily happen, and as Anonymous Coward stated above Japan has a lot of bizarre hidden laws that are only whipped out when they need to go after one specific person.
That said, I don't think this means the death of the internet in Japan, and also not the death of YouTube and Nico Nico Douga.
Funny... I also tried to post this same comment in response to Kotaku's freakout article about the new law but my comment was modded out instantly. Methinks they wanted to stir up bunch of frenzied commentors (and get ad hits in the process), so they didn't want anyone peeing on the fire too soon.