Anime piracy has been a major point of contention within the medium for some time. There have been countless websites and portals that have been taken to task by government organizations for sharing leaked episodes and movies of the anime variety. In a wild new story, it appears as though the Japanese government is cracking down on a much different sort of leak, spoilers. In a new shocking release, Japanese officials have confirmed that three men have been arrested for sharing spoilers online and you might be shocked to learn just why this is a big faux pas in Japan.
Videos by ComicBook.com
To start, Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) shared the news that the Miyagi Prefectural Police and Tome Police Station had arrested three men who were spoiling some major properties. One of which was detailed descriptions of Godzilla Minus One prior to the movie’s release earlier this year and the other was Overlord III, the isekai series that sees a gamer placed into the role of his video game character, a giant skeleton sorcerer. While piracy has always been an issue, the idea that transcribing spoilers in text would be against the law might come as a shock to many anime fans. Luckily, CODA did break down the events that transpired.
Anime Spoilers Illegal?
Here is the official statement from CODA regarding the events, “On October 29, 2024, the Miyagi Prefectural Police Headquarters and Tome Police Station arrested three men, including a company manager living in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on suspicion of violating copyright law for transcribing the entire story of a movie or other copyrighted work without the permission of the rights holder, creating an article with related images, and posting it on a website operated by their company. This is the first time in Japan that the operators of a website extracting text from movies and other works have been arrested.”
The breakdown continues, “Between January 2023 and February 2024, the men transcribed detailed information about the entire story, including the names of characters, lines, actions, scenes, and scene developments depicted in the film “Godzilla 1.0” and one other film, whose copyrights are held by Toho Co., Ltd. and others, and the anime “Overlord III,” whose copyrights are held by KADOKAWA Corporation and others, without the permission of the rights holders, and posted articles together with related images on a website to unfairly obtain advertising revenue.”
The Explanation
The Content Overseas Distribution Association broke down why the spoilers are in hot water, “There have been many sites that extract text from movies and other content, and they are considered problematic as so-called “spoiler sites.” These actions tend to be considered less of an infringement than pirated sites or illegal uploads that upload the content itself, but they are clear copyright infringements that go beyond the scope of quotation and are serious crimes. The problem with sites that extract text from movies and other content is that they reduce people’s desire to pay a fair price for content, which can lead to people not seeing the official full-length movies, causing great damage to rights holders. In addition, the act of infringing on content that creators have spent time, effort, and money to create and unfairly obtaining advertising revenue is extremely malicious and should never be tolerated.”
Want to learn more about what is and isn’t illegal in the anime world? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on all things anime and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
