Supreme Court Denies Copyright Liability for File Sharing Software Developer

摘要

Japan's Supreme Court on December 19 delivered a landmark ruling which should encourage the development of computer programs when it rejected a public prosecution appeal to punish the developer of file sharing software called Winny for his alleged infringement of the Copyright Law (Docket No. Heisei 21(A) 1900). The top court's ruling was the first of its kind in defense of file sharing software and their developers at a time of rampant legal infringements and security breaches using such software.