Anonymous turns ire on Japan after anti-piracy law passes It was only a matter of time – hacktivist group Anonymous has taken aim at the web sites of political parties and government departments in Japan in retaliation for a tough new anti-piracy bill passed last week. The update to the Copyright Law was brought about after heavy lobbying by a content industry dismayed that illegal …
DDoS attacks really achieve little more than publicity, though in some cases that can be useful such as drawing attention to Bharain's human rights records.
The much rarer leaks of information have more lasting impact, but these are rarer and I think mostly matters of opportunity rather than targetting.
I wish Anonymous would focus more on things like censorship and human rights abuses, than piracy. Direct Action has its place and in Today's world, that means online as often as not. Sure, increasing the sentences and fines for piracy in Japan is not going to do much good beyond a certain point (if six months inside doesn't stop the average Freetard, they're probably already thinking they wont get caught meaning two years wont discourage them any more. And as a punishment it is too severe for any non-commercial pirate). But that doesn't mean its worthy of DDoS attacks. Focus on the important things. Just because the Pirate Bay likes to leap in on any popular movement and try to present itself as being all about Freedom (not making money from advertising and getting pissed off when others use their material to divert that revenue stream), doesn't mean piracy has much to do with real issues of Freedom, Human Rights and Censorship.
Part of the new copyright law states that the Japanese government is trying to give itself extra-territorial powers to prosecute its citizens anywhere in the world. So, if Saito-san watches an "infringing" youtube clip while on vacation in another country, he can still be prosecuted, facing a 2 million yen fine and ten years in jail.
I'm no expert on law, but doesn't that seem to go beyond piracy and perhaps stray into a rights issue?
"I'm no expert on law, but doesn't that seem to go beyond piracy and perhaps stray into a rights issue?"
If it's that extreme then yes. Any extreme enforcement actually does. I'd like to see what is actually in it (and I don't read Japanese so it's difficult) as criminalizing someone watching an infringing YouTube clip in a foreign country sounds pretty crazy. Are any laws about activity outside of Japan simply to deal with people who offshore the behaviour... for example hosting the torrent server in China or something as an easy dodge? Without details, everyone just brings their own preconceptions to the debate - you, me, all of us.
Right, never a day seems to go by without a breach-of-copyright story. Even now, El Reg has similar story only five items newer than this one: "69,000 sign petition to save TV-linker O'Dwyer from US extradition."
I'm beginning to think it's got to explode anytime. Copyright holders have been getting compliant governments to tighten the screws for so long something's got to give soon. Online connectivity, file-sharing etc. is now the norm, thus simply by exposure and not by intent, sooner or later, just about everyone will be in at least technical breach of copyright law.
The law's already a farce no matter what country one's in.
The recording association of Japan aren't satisfied with ten years in jail, they are now calling for Phorm type monitoring and blocking by ISPs. It's about time governments realised that the only reason these organisations exist is to lobby for more control and if they ever admit the laws are enough then they will all be out of work. This makes their ridiculous demands far more to do with keeping their jobs than achieving reasonable measures to fight piracy.
While Anonymous may be reacting in its usual knee-jerk fashion, there is a very real and serious problem with copyright in Japan that is strangling content producers at a number of levels. Rights holders are extremely powerful, and the circulation of images and sounds is highly restricted by the existing copyright code. Many Japanese don't believe that the concept of fair use exists, they will tell you it doesn't exist in Japan, and they will self-censor out of fear that their organizations *might* be sued.
Consumers, of course, do not care. They will just change the channel and listen to K-Pop.
Copyright is little more than a diseased remnant of an earlier age. Piracy is now ubiquitous, you can find stories of copyright groups themselves committing it (BREIN in the Netherlands is one that I remember, though don't quote me on that).
It's simply not possible to protect one's "intellectual property" on the internet, at least not using the out-dated and moronic methods that copyright groups are applying. Whether this is ethically right or wrong or whatever shouldn't even be a discussion any more, we had that years ago, and regardless of the outcome, this has happened, and the clock can't be turned back.
Instead, we should be having a serious discussion on why their model of profit hasn't changed, and whether law enforcement should continue to act as bounty hunters for copyright groups (in any country) instead of solving actual real crimes wot with violence and that.
Anonymous might be ineffectual and often plain stupid, but props to them for actually DOING something; they, at least, don't enjoy being shafted by corporations anywhere.
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