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On December 17, 2003, the Tokyo District Court ordered Japan MMO and its principal Michihito Matsuda to jointly pay for damages of 36.89 million Japanese yen in total (and additional late payment charge) by reason that they infringed the right of making transmittable exclusively owned by 19 plaintiffs (RIAJ member companies and their affiliates). Japan MMO had been offering a file-sharing service on the Internet, called the FILEROGUE.
On February 28, 2002, the 19 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit claiming that Japan MMO and Matsuda shall pay for damages apprx. 151 million Japanese yen. Following the interlocutory judgment having ruled on January 29, 2003 that Japan MMO and Matsuda were jointly liable for the payment, the court finally decided today the amount of damages.
Together with payment for the damages, the court also ordered Japan MMO NOT to provide FILEROGUE users with information to identify the content of MP3 files, extracted from music CDs for which 19 plaintiffs own the right (Complying with the preliminary injunction ordered on April 9, 2002, they has been suspending its entire service from April 16.)
Japan MMO opened its Japanese web site on November 1, 2001 to offer the FILEROGUE file-sharing service and distributed free, proprietary software tools enabling a huge number of subscribers to directly transmit and/or receive shared files by providing search and link information through the centralized FILEROGUE server. According to a survey jointly conducted by JASRAC and RIAJ last January, they identified that most of 70,000 MP3 files, which were made available for sharing at any time, were infringing materials extracted from music CDs without authorization.
The court today ordered payment of 36.89 million Japanese yen in total, as a remedy for the infringement on records of 19 contract artists, which the plaintiffs chose to claim. RIAJ would evaluate the damages for record companies to be a clear sign from the court NOT allowing a safe harbor for an infringer who conducts illegal use of content on the Internet.
RIAJ will continuously take drastic measures against such illegal use of music on the Internet that will corrupt the “cycle of music creation” and decline the music culture. |
