A hefty fine, and prison time if he doesn’t keep his nose clean.
Way back in May, you might remember that a Japanese YouTuber was arrested for uploading gameplay and edited anime footage to YouTube. Well, that YouTuber (Shinobu Yoshida) has just been sentenced for the incident.
Per Asahi Digital, Judge Koichi Nakamura, found Yoshida guilty of posting a full, unaltered playthrough of Stein’s Gate: My Darling’s Embrace, as well as several videos of edited Spy x Family episodes. His sentence requires him to pay a ¥1,000,000 fine (roughly in the equivalent ballpark of $100,000-$150,000), and a five year suspended sentence, or two years in prison.
In court, Yoshida claimed that all he wanted to do was share content as one of his hobbies. Prosecutors, however, did not agree, claiming that he had “maliciously trampled on efforts of content creation” by uploading this content.
It’s at this moment I need to point out that most outlets, including my source, are reporting this incorrectly by referring to his Stein’s;Gate footage as a let’s play. He uploaded the ending to a visual novel/dating sim; there’s not much in the way of transformative wiggle room there. It’s also worth noting that he did so with monetization and ad revenue on. It’s actually related quite heavily with the edited uploads of Spy x Family, which are edited to be what the Content Overseas Distribution Agency (CODA) describes as “fast content”. Fast content essentially strips shows and games to their most essential elements, often adding captions, commentary, or narration to quickly fill in the gaps between the important clips left in.
Since there’s not much transformative about these types of videos, they can wind up being fairly illegal; adding in monetization only makes that illegality worse, at least in court. It’s entirely likely that Nitroplus (the rights holders for Stein’s;Gate) as well as the production houses for Spy x Family wanted an example made of this case, and they likely have it. It’s uncertain how Mr. Yoshida will proceed, though I imagine he’d like to avoid prison time and will opt, if possible, for that 5 year suspended sentence.
Source: The Gamer
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