Japan ISP’s Next To Block File Sharing?
Joining other nations like France, Japan’s ISP’s look set to adopt the “three strikes you’re out” policy towards file sharing, in spite of potential privacy issues.
File sharing in Japan jumped 180% last year, and movie, software, and music producers have convinced the big four ISP’s in Japan to adopt a policy that at first warns users who are file sharing, then interrupts their service if it continues, and finally will completely shut down their service if the user continues to file share.
The copyright holders would control the software that tracks the file sharing, and would in turn alert the ISP’s when infractions are encountered. Then the ISP would take on measures to punish the user.
Plans like these have been floated in Australia and the UK, with it appearing likely to go ahead in France.
The most popular file sharing site in Japan is called Winny, and it accounts for the lion’s share of the illegal downloading that occurs in Japan. Gaming software is the most popular sort of file that is downloaded, and it is estimated that about $100 million in gaming software alone was pirated last year in Japan.
Thanks to Enigmax at torrentfreak for the info.
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