James Delahunty
16 Dec 2006 19:54
The author of the popular Japanese P2P software Winny has been convicted and fined by a Kyoto district court. Isamu Kaneko, a researcher at Tokyo University, was arrested all the way back in May 2004. The Winny software has been used to distribute copyrighted material and had over half a million users earlier this year. This week, a court found Kaneko guilty of enabling copyright infringement, and fined him ¥1.5m.
"The ruling will stop the development of information technology in Japan. Programmers will no longer be willing to develop new technologies," the League for Software Engineers director told the Daily Yomiuri newspaper. The verdict has been appealed and the case will now move to a higher court.
In the United States, the supreme court ruled in the Grokster case that developers/operators of software/services who induce copyright infringement may be found liable for the acts of infringement. However, U.S. courts have yet to prosecute software developers that the supreme court ruling would apply to.
Source:
Reg Developer