Man Gets 2.5 Years Jail Time in DS Piracy Case

Kyoto judge comes down hard on copyright violator.

2009-08-03 17:24 / Anoop Gantayat / Comments

The judgement came down today on an Osaka man accused of selling copied DS games, Jiji News reports. Kyoto district court judge Junichi Tochigi found 38-year-old Yoshiaki Asagiri guilty of copyright violations and ordered 2 years 6 months jail time, a fine of ¥2 million, and supplementary penalties of ¥7,135,450.

The fees were in line with those originally sought by prosecutors, but the jail time was lower than the requested 4 years 6 months.

Said Tochigi, "This crime is an insult to the efforts of the rights holders who spent great amounts in the production of the games. It's clear that the rights holders suffered great losses."

According to the judgment, Asagiri's violations included working with a female acquaintance and others to create a website which allowed for the download of copied game data. This was between July and August of last year and resulted in downloads by an unspecified number of people.

Asagiri also made money off sales of bootleg goods, including such brands as Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

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