The ordeal of three people, who edited major movies down to 10 minutes and then uploaded those summaries to YouTube, is not over yet. After being arrested and found guilty in a criminal court last year, they now face action in the civil courts. A total of 13 companies including Toei, Kadokawa, Nikkatsu, and Fuji, say they are entitled to at least $3.9 million in copyright damages.

When YouTube first got off the ground in 2005, most of its users would’ve been oblivious to how closely copyright law would govern their online activities moving forward.

Seventeen years later, with billions of internet users now both consumers and creators of content, people are becoming more educated. Terms such as DMCA, copyright strike and fair use are now regular features in YouTube content creator communities but that hasn’t necessarily led to fewer infringements or happier rightsholders.

Media companies in Japan believe that the use of overwhelming force to send a deterrent message may go some way to solving these problems.

The rest of this article can be read on TorrentFreak.com

Source link