
EFF to Japan: Reject Website Blocking - DiabloD3
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/07/eff-japan-reject-website-blocking
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mc32
I sympathize with the EFF here to some degree... But why in the world do they
think Japan cares one bit what the EFF say? Japan likes doing things their own
way, and they will learn on their own terms what works best for them and what
doesn't.

It'd be like the ACLU telling Japan how to do justice in Japan.

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guitarbill
To be fair to the EFF, it isn't like your ACLU example at all. Lawmakers have
only been grappling with the internet and it's implications for a relatively
short period (historically speaking). And there have been some bad
decisions/policies. Sometimes culture plays a part, sometimes it doesn't. So
it's fair for the EFF to say: "we feel this has worked for other people, and
this hasn't. please take it into consideration, including chilling effects and
technical pitfalls", especially for a global resource like the internet. (It's
also fair for Japanese lawmakers to ignore them, which is the most likely
outcome.)

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ezoe
Seriously for now? It was like a few months old news and the situation was not
what they're describing. I generally support EFF but I think EFF should hire
the staff who is good at reading Japanese before saying something to Japan
because their recognition is totally off from the real world situation.

There was a massive manga uploading web site, 漫画村(manga mura) who has many
users. I really don't understand why 漫画村(manga mura) is particularly blamed
for since there are bunch of these copyright infringing manga-uploading sites.
My guess is that their UI was good for smartphone, not too many ads and fast
or they prepared smartphone app which is just a wrapper of the browser(I
really don't understand smartphone app ecosystem).

Technically, it's just traditional server-hosted web site. Nothing special or
technically interesting like file sharing implemented on P2P mesh network.

漫画村(manga mura) boasted that they are perfectly legal for they are based on a
country which has no diplomatic recognition with Japan. So the Japanese
copyright has no effect on them.

This is my opinion and I'm not the lawyer but the interesting thing is there
is a case I think it relate to this. Japanese court denied North korea's
copyright for Japan and North Korea has no diplomatic recognition with each
other.

Anyway the point is, 漫画村(manga mura) server is physically located at foreign
countries(presumably a country which has no diplomatic recognition with Japan)
so Japan has no jurisdiction over them.

Japan has strong 通信の秘密(Secrecy of correspondence) supported by the
constitution so blocking and Deep Packet Inspection is illegal.

So a bunch of publishers gathered up and pressured government to do something
and what they come up? The blocking with 緊急避難(emergency escape).

緊急避難(neccesity) is the legal concept in Japan that illegal act for avoiding
emergency threat is considered not illegal if the thing it try to prevent is
more worse than doing so.(I'm not lawyer so don't relies on my explanation)

The Japanese government said that blocking the 漫画村(manga mura) will be
considered legal under the 緊急避難(necessity).

The problem is, it's not the Japanese government who interpret the law. It's
the court. So Japanese government's announcement is just a suggestion and no
authority over the court.

NTT bite the trap and enthusiastically announced they will block the 漫画村(manga
mura).

Later, 漫画村(manga mura) was shutdown for their own, and government retracted
the 緊急避難(necessity) interpretation. NTT was NTT and it's been sadi that
they're still working on implementing the blocking.

But if you look back the history, Japan already does blocking.

In 2011 and onward, Major Japanese ISPs started blocking the child
pornography. There is no law and it violates the 通信の秘密(Secrecy of
correspondence) but it is considered not illegal under 緊急避難(necessity).

It is said that child pornography blocking was implemented by organization
maintained list consists of a few hundred URLs confirmed to refer to the child
pornography now.

It's useless for a few hundred URLs can't block all the child pornography on
the Internet. It's not effective but the fact that there is ongoing blocking
which shall be illegal under normal circumstances without due process but
merely considered non-illegal by 緊急避難(necessity)

This child porn blocking we already have doesn't led to wide criticism like we
do now for copyright infringement blocking. Perhaps, considering
緊急避難(necessity), people think child porn is worse than violating the
constitution, but copyright infringement isn't worthy of violating the
constitution.

I do understand that. Child porn and violation of constitution are both basic
human right violation so they are same level of violation.

Copyright infringement is, on the other hand, just monetary damage on private
citizen or organization. My common sense prioritize human right violation over
monetary damage.

Disclaimer: I am heavily biased that I am employed at one of the publisher who
suggested the blocking. That said, I think 通信の秘密(Secrecy of correspondence)
shall never be violated. Not for copyright infringement, even for child porn.
I also think copyright/patent/trademark are outdated concepts and shall be
abolished ASAP.

