News
Woman Arrested for Uploading Anime via Perfect Dark
posted on by Egan Loo
The Nikkan Sports and Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspapers report that Japanese police have arrested a 42-year-old unemployed woman named Tomoko Sasaki on Friday for allegedly uploading anime online, without the copyright holders' permission, using the Perfect Dark file-sharing software.
Other people have been arrested for uploading anime online, but Sasaki is only the third known person arrested for using Perfect Dark, a "next-generation" program which was intended to maintain its users' anonymity better than its predecessors. (The Perfect Dark file-sharing program has no relation to the Nintendo 64/XBox Live Arcade game of the same name.)
According to the Okayama, Kyoto, and Saga police, the Chiba-based suspect uploaded the Mitsudomoe television series and two other anime titles on August 23 and 24. The suspect allegedly said "I don't want to say anything now" in her deposition.
Takayuki Marubashi, a 37-year resident of the town of Kamisato northwest of Tokyo, was arrested in January as the first suspect accused of using Perfect Dark to upload anime (specifically, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood). The second known suspect was Noriaki Matsumoto, a Osaka man who was arrested in June for allegedly distributing Ookiku Furikabutte (Big Windup!).
Image © Norio Sakurai/Weekly Shōnen Champion
© Norio Sakurai (Weekly Shōnen Champion)/Mitsudomoe Production Committee
