Police: Japan's first illegal use of kagamin2 software exposed

The cyber-crime task force of the Osaka Police and several other departments announced on Wednesday that they filed charges against six male suspects for allegedly posting Detective Conan , Hunter x Hunter , Vandread , and other anime illegally on the Internet. The suspects reportedly violated copyrights by using kagamin2 and other software to distribute videos. According to the police, this is the first time in the entire country that illegal distribution via kagamin2 has exposed.

The suspects include unemployed men and male part-time workers in their 20s to 40s from Sakai City, Tokyo, and Chiba. Among them are a 24-year-old male college student from Sakai City, a 25-year-old unemployed man from Sakai City, and a 24-year-old unemployed man from Sano City in Tochigi Prefecture. According to the cyber-crime task force, the six suspects knew each other through online bulletin boards, repeatedly distributed videos from rental DVDs and other works, and posted details on how to access these videos on the 2channel site.

In particular, they allegedly distributed five videos of Detective Conan , including episode 292, from March to June. The two 24-year-old suspects from Sakai and Sano reportedly distributed episode 7 of Vandread on May 11.

The suspects allegedly admitted to the charges, with the college student saying, "I wanted many people to see the anime and even help the distributors." Another suspect reportedly said, "Even though I'm just one person, I wanted to let many people see anime." The police confiscated nine personal computers and 11 hard disks during their search of the suspects' homes.

Sources: Mainichi, Sankei, Association of Copyright for Computer Software