Japanese Supreme Court Rules TV Forwarding Illegal

eldavojohn writes "If you use anything like a Slingbox in Japan, you may be dismayed to find out that a Japanese maker of a similar service has been successfully sued by Japan Broadcasting Corp. and five Tokyo-based local TV broadcasting firms under copyright violations for empowering users to do similar things. TV forwarding or place shifting is recording and/or moving your normal TV signal from its intended living room box to your home computer or anywhere on the internet. Turns out that Japan's Supreme Court overruled lower court decisions confirming fears that to even facilitate this functionality is a copyright infringement on the work that is being transferred."

dear media execs: you can't control this

[circletimessquare]

why do lawyers believe they can stop the march of technological progress?

it didn't work with the printing press, and it didn't work with every other media advance since

why do some fools continue to believe it will stopped now, or ever?

technological progress trumps law. always. deal with it

Re:And nothing of value was lost

[dintech]

I wonder what this means for the Japanese Government sponsered TV Streaming App:

Keyhole TV [v2p.jp]
Wikipedia Article [wikipedia.org]

Space-shifting "service" is the issue

[Migraineman]

Here's a better article. [japantimes.co.jp]

Looks like the issue is a commercial entity providing the space-shifting service. This isn't an individual setting up his own DVR and using a VPN to watch recorded shows. This case involves a company acting as a proxy for the individual, hoping that the following claim will protect them -
.

Nagano Shoten said it is just renting out space to install the devices belonging to its customers, who chiefly live abroad, and is not infringing copyright.

Having not seen actual court documents, I'm inclined to think that the third-party service is the real issue. Oh, and that pesky part about the media cartels not getting a cut.

Re:Space-shifting "service" is the issue

[Richard W.M. Jones]

Actually had a friend who worked in sales selling one of these services.

The way it works is this:

The company hires a room in Tokyo and fills it top to bottom with (legally purchased) decoder boxes. The output from these is sent over the internet to paying customers in foreign countries -- in the UK in the case of my friend. They get access to these "proxied" services, the idea being that they can watch Japanese TV programs from the UK without needing all the special satellite equipment.

The (stupid) copyright issue is down to regional licensing of TV programs and films, which is why the established broadcasters hate these services and try to portray them as criminal / pirates when of course they are no such thing.

Anyway, hope this explains a bit more what's going on here. I see it's business as usual for openness and transparency in Japanese politics/law ...

Rich.

Re:Targeted: Fansubbers

[Chang]

This is incorrect. This ruling went against Nagano Shoten's Maneki TV service which was targeted almost exclusively at a small number of Japanese living overseas - especially people who were doing the same thing by sticking a media PC at their Japanese apartment or parents house or whatnot and streaming it themselves.

Sony sells a device called location free TV that does the same thing except you set it up yourself with no service provider involved.

I wouldn't read too much into this ruling. If Sony is sued successfully then this would actually be news.