Perhaps the global music industry should ask Sony to handle its campaign against illegal filesharing via its Tokyo HQ, because the Japanese music industry has won a landmark court settlement against a P2P company there, MMO. A Tokyo court has rejected MMO's appeal that it could not be held liable for any copyright violation committed using its P2P software, and awarded the plaintiffs, which included 19 record labels, the Recording Industry Association of Japan and songwriter organisation JASRAC, Yen36.89mn (£183,000) in damages.
It is an important decision because courts in most other countries have not held technology firms who make P2P software liable for the copyright violation they enable, accepting the argument that, providing the software has a legitimate use, then the liability for any illegal activity it enables lies with the user not the software maker. That very issue is currently being debated in the US Supreme Court where film studio MGM are trying to have the makers of the Grokster P2P software held liable for copyright violation. Insiders reckon that American content owners will not be successful in that bid until their had been a chance in US copyright law, and that the technology giants are likely to fight any legislation to that effect fearing that they too might be held liable for copyright theft.
Welcoming the decision made by the Tokyo courts, a spokesman for the RIAJ said that it saw the court victory as just one part of its ongoing fight against online music piracy: "RIAJ will continuously take drastic measures against illegal use of music on the internet that corrupts the "cycle of music creation" and leads to decline of the music culture".
Allen Dixon, general counsel for the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, added: 'This case is important in that it is the first decision world-wide that has found that providing an unauthorised file-sharing service itself constitutes an infringement of record companies' rights to "make available" their recordings on the Internet".