The article later clarifies that the actual crime was to post extensive screenshots and descriptions of movies on his blogs, to such detail that it was essentially like reading a picture-book adaptation of the movie. This is really not the same as "posting spoilers."
If not for protecting media giants - this seems like a wonderful service. There are plenty of great movies I will never watch. Having the ability to scroll through a detailed summary with pictures would make it feel much more real than reading a media-less plot summary.
> If not for protecting media giants - [ … ]
As soon as we start conditioning ethics, we give up and undermine the principles behind those ethics.
Yeah, this seems more like a copyright issue than a "spoilers" issue
I think putting people in prison for "copyright infringement" is inherently illegitimate, so this doesn't change my view of the situation, which is that everyone involved should be ashamed to even continue existing.
In the US, it is the responsibility of copyright holders to protect their IP through tort litigation. Japan is so captured by industry that they will put people in prison for what should be a civil matter. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that it's mostly the IP of large corporations that is protected by criminal law. It's as if the police were to volunteer to be personal bodyguards for rich people. It's understandable, though: Japanese popular media is a core part of their "Cool Japan" soft power foreign policy strategy.
For me, there is a sign-up modal overlay that prevents reading or scrolling, even though the entire article loads. How did others manage to read the article?