Külföldi torrent oldalak Estimated 20 Billion Yen Lost Through Movie Piracy!

The illegal practice of secretly recording films in theaters and uploading them to the Internet has resulted in annual losses of more than 20 billion yen, the Japan and International Motion Picture Copyright Association (JIMCA) estimates.

One man was apprehended for recording the science fiction film "Lucy" in a movie theater in the city of Fukuoka in September last year. Fukuoka Prefectural Police sent his case to prosecutors on charges of violating a law to prevent secret filming of movies and the Copyright Act. He was found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine of 200,000 yen.

According to prefectural police and JIMCA, the man had placed a plastic bottle with the top part cut off into the cup holder on the armrest of his seat, onto which he'd mounted a video camera. To prevent the light that indicates the camera is on from being detected, he had draped a black cloth over it.

The man, who was sitting in the center of the very back row, is believed to have chosen the seat for optimal filming conditions. He was handed over to police after an audience member who noticed the man's unusual behavior alerted staff at the theater, who then called police.

According to JIMCA, cases of secret film-recording grew increasingly common from around 2004, when it became easier than before to watch video on home computers. The typical purpose of secretly recording films in theaters and uploading them online is sharing them with other movie fans, but the films are often illegally copied by other people who then sell them for a profit.

In a 2010 survey conducted by JIMCA of 3,000 people aged 15 to 64, one-sixth said they had viewed a pirated movie in the past year. Based on this information, JIMCA estimates that some 23.5 billion yen has been lost in box office sales, and the sales and rentals of DVDs and Blu-ray.

Data signals are embedded in films that are shown in movie theaters, and include information such as when and where they were screened. JIMCA is trying to get the big picture of secret filming by analyzing the signals that are given off by the pirated films online.

JIMCA public relations officer Hiroyuki Murakami expressed great concern for the rampant piracy, saying, "A drop in profits that are allotted to producing future movies is hindering further development of the film industry."

Violation of copyright is a serious problem not only in films, but also in animated television programs, music and video-game software. The Anti Counterfeiting Association says large numbers of products are being copied and sold online illegally.

According to the National Police Agency, close to 90 percent of copyright violation cases exposed in 2013 involved the use of the Internet for illegal buying, selling and uploading. The number of pirated items seized that year was 598,672, approximately 20 times that in 2004.

Police are trying to clamp down on piracy, but the fact that many unauthorized uploads are made via overseas networks has proven to be a particularly challenging obstacle.