Japanese ISPs to prohibit P2P Pirates

Reports appeared around the Internet last week that, in retort to demands from music, software and movie industry organizations, ISPs in Japan have decided to work with copyright holders to discover customers using peer to peer file sharing services to breach on copyrighted material and unplug their Internet services.

A report in Japanese news publication the Yomiuri Shimbun said the significantly amplified occurrence of users using P2P file sharing software - specifically referencing the Japanese program Winny - to unlawfully share music and gaming software was the chief motivator for the latest shift.

Japanese ISPs have considered comparable strategy in the past to get in the way of peer-to-peer piracy, but had in no way put them into practice over trepidation of transgressing or violating certain privacy rights. In 2006 a provider was given a caution by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry that the approach would be considered an invasion of privacy. But ISPs actually now consider they will be able to successfully identify the particularly active cases of copyright infringement and cancel their contracts.

The four industry organizations accountable for putting the pressure on Japanese ISPs include theTelecom Service Association and the Telecommunications Carriers Association, and account for about 1,000 ISPs, including the country’s main providers, and countless smaller local providers, making this the foremost endeavor against piracy that would have the support of Japan’s entire ISP business.

The agreement purportedly would have copyright holders use software expressly designed for the intention to recognize the IP addresses of recurring violators, and then send notice of those addresses to ISPs. The service providers would send caution emails to their customers, and would either provisionally or permanently disconnect them if they continued to copy files illegally.