[Kiwami]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndigoArms

I know this sounds stupid, But what if I was in the middle of using a torrent then all of sudden, get slapped with a fine or would I be safe.

Depending on where you live that can already happen.

I'll take Germany as an example since that's the only country I'm familiar with when it comes to this: Torrenting is illegal as you share the copyrighted content with others while you download it. There exist specialized lawyers who work with internet providers to get data on who used the torrent. Then they threaten to sue you if you don't pay a fee. What you then do is take a lawyer of your own who disputes this, a lower fee is settled upon and that’s it.

Thing is - the one licensing the content needs to authorize the law firms. So to make the most profit and to catch as many people as possible, law firms work with the big movie producers when huge Hollywood productions come out or something. Marvel movies and the such. Or big local productions the lawyers can easily get in contact with.

So for someone in Germany to get fined for torrenting Kamen Rider for example, you would first need lawyers who know Kamen Rider exists (insert Kamen Rider Zolda joke here), they would then need to negotiate with Toei and Toei would need to allow them to take legal action in their name. And then they would actually need to find the two-dozen people in Germany who actually torrent it. And on top of that - there would need to be someone in Germany who actually has a license for Kamen Rider someone living in Germany could infringe upon.

That's a lot of hoops to jump through; it's easier to target big productions everyone knows. The lawyers know what to target and they know there will be lots of people torrenting it.

Now, taking the context of the new Japanese laws into account - they're looking to take big streaming / torrent sites down. I highly doubt they would go after individuals using these services here.