The Japanese government has just passed a law that makes it illegal to download copyright materials. The Anti-Downloading Law imposes a 2-year jail term and a fine of 2 million yen (or around $26,000).
The number of illegal downloaders have greatly surpassed the legal downloaders in Japan by 10:1 and the number is dwindling every year.
Japan is known for really high-speed internet but that is at the cost of preventing people from using peer-to-peer networks to upload illegal content.
The country has already a law that criminalizes uploading of illegal content with fines of up to 10 million yen (about $128,000) and a prison term of up to 10 years.
This time around, the Japanese government is also penalizing everyone that is caught downloading illegal content.
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inakupo! may gagayahin na nman ang mga mambabatas natin!!!!
Downloading copyrighted materials is illegal:
I think some of the reasons we still download are:
1. we cannot afford or too expensive (Php350+/dvd/cd)
2. it is not available in the country (anime,tv series, manga,etc)
3. many more.