Japanese man sentenced to prison for posting spoilers

(theverge.com)

39 points | by speckx 20 hours ago ago

6 comments

  • krispyfi an hour ago ago

    In the US, it is the responsibility of copyright holders to protect their IP through tort litigation. Japan is so captured by industry that they will put people in prison for what should be a civil matter. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that it's mostly the IP of large corporations that is protected by criminal law. It's as if the police were to volunteer to be personal bodyguards for rich people. It's understandable, though: Japanese popular media is a core part of their "Cool Japan" soft power foreign policy strategy.

  • throwawayk7h 19 hours ago ago

    The article later clarifies that the actual crime was to post extensive screenshots and descriptions of movies on his blogs, to such detail that it was essentially like reading a picture-book adaptation of the movie. This is really not the same as "posting spoilers."

    • 3eb7988a1663 17 hours ago ago

      If not for protecting media giants - this seems like a wonderful service. There are plenty of great movies I will never watch. Having the ability to scroll through a detailed summary with pictures would make it feel much more real than reading a media-less plot summary.

      • Nevermark 16 hours ago ago

        > If not for protecting media giants - [ … ]

        As soon as we start conditioning ethics, we give up and undermine the principles behind those ethics.

    • oliyoung 17 hours ago ago

      Yeah, this seems more like a copyright issue than a "spoilers" issue

  • rendall 12 hours ago ago

    For me, there is a sign-up modal overlay that prevents reading or scrolling, even though the entire article loads. How did others manage to read the article?