NHK reported on October 26, 2020 that a 40-year-old was arrested in Fukuoka on suspicion of selling pirated anime DVDs. Specifically, he’s alleged to have sold copies of the popular series Demon Slayer through website sales.
Fukuoka suspect denies part of charges
The suspect denies part of the charges, saying that “while I thought they were bad-quality DVDs, I thought they were officially licensed products when I sold them.”
Japanese police believe he sold three DVDs to two women living in the Ibaraki prefecture back in March 2020. This alleged sale violates the Japanese Copyright Act. According to NHK, the website the DVDs were advertised on claimed the DVDs as pirated versions without commercials.
Investigation into suspect’s bank account
NHK also reported that police are currently investigating whether 11.5 million yet (equivalent to about $110,000 USD) worth of deposits made into the suspect’s bank account are related to the alleged sales of pirated DVDs.
To give some context, the physical DVD and Blu-Ray sales and rentals in Japan from January to June 2020 came to an amount of 71.439 billion yen or $675 million USD as reported by Anime News Network.
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