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Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Japan Court Convicts Creator of File-swapping Software
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A Japanese court has convicted the inventor of popular
file-swapping software for copyright violations but refused to
jail the programmer, who has become a cyberspace icon.
Isamu Kaneko, 36, created the Winny software which lets users
exchange files such as computer games and movies over the
Internet for free.
Kaneko, who was a research assistant at Tokyo University until
his arrest in 2004, was ordered to pay a 1.5-million-yen
(13,000-dollar) fine in Japan's first ruling on file-sharing
software.
But the Kyoto District Court turned down a call from prosecutors
for a one-year prison sentence for Kaneko, who pleaded not
guilty.
Judge Makoto Himuro said in the ruling that Kaneko "had realized
the software would be widely used in its form to violate
copyrights."
The judge said nearly 90 percent of files swapped by Winny are
illegally copied.
But he also showed leniency toward the programmer and said the
defendant "had seen the necessity and possibility to construct a
new business model as an engineer."
Kaneko, who is said to have designed his first computer program
while in elementary school, has become a cause celebre for
Japanese Internet buffs.
He is known in cyberspace as "47" -- a reference to his posting
on a message board declaring Winny's creation -- and has amassed
thousands of dollars in donations for his legal defense.
Winny, which can be obtained for free on the Internet, is
reportedly still used by up to 450,000 computers in Japan.
It allows the anonymous exchange of files, facilitating the
transfer of music and movie files and obscene content.
But Winny has also been said to suffer programming flaws as it
has been the source of a series of information leaks, including
from a number of computers belonging to government and company
officials who used the software privately.
Prosecutors had argued that Kaneko intended to destroy the system
of copyright protection by inventing and releasing the software.
The defense counsel countered that the programmer should not be
responsible for the illegal acts committed by Winny's users. |
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