Summary
An important Japanese legal case from a bubble in time when public and media panic over Internet practices led to intense scrutiny.
If you were online in the early 2000s, you’ll remember the absolute panic around peer-to-peer (or P2P) file sharing. Most will remember the widespread media attention around programs like Napster. In Japan, the focus was on Winny, a program developed by Isamu Kaneko, the programmer who found himself at the centre of a precedent setting legal case.
In November 2003, two users of Winny were arrested for using the program to share copyright material. Shortly after, Kaneko himself (played in the film by Masahiro Higashide) was apprehended on the charges of conspiracy to encourage copyright infringement and “proliferating piracy.”
Lawyer and cybercrime specialist Toshimitsu Dan (Takahiro Miura) recognises that Kaneko’s arrest has broader implications on the rights of programmers everywhere. He decides to take on the case, arguing that the creator of the software that makes the piracy possible is not responsible for the actions of its users.
Primarily written as a courtroom drama, it still isn’t until the halfway mark of the film that the trial itself starts. Director Yusaku Matsumoto and co-writer Kentro Kishi use this motif to explain technical details to the judges of the court, and thereby pass on those complex details to the audience.
For the most part, this works exceptionally well, although Matsumoto recognises that the trial alone cannot sustain an entire film. Layered into the narrative are glimpses of Kaneko’s past, with the programmer portrayed as a little boy who simply loved computers and grew up trying to make the world a better place.
Yet there’s also a secondary storyline about police corruption that Matsumoto has used to expand the running time, and this is less successful in the telling. Included here on the thin premise that Winny was used to leak documents that proved the misappropriation of law enforcement funds, even the in-film characters talk about it being only tangentially related to Kaneko’s case. Nevertheless, it does add more fuel to the argument that the program can be used for white hat purposes as well.
Between Tetris, Air, and now this film, it’s a golden age for the process and copyright heads out there in filmland. While the film only covers the initial trial, Kaneko was ultimately acquitted by the Osaka High Court, with the decision upheld by the Supreme Court of Japan. It’s a case that’s certainly had deeper implications that resonate with any user of copyright material online today.
2023 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Yusaku Matsumoto | WRITERS: Kentro Kishi, Yusaku Matsumoto | CAST: Masahiro Higashide, Takahiro Miura, Hidetaka Yoshioka | DISTRIBUTOR: JAPAN CUTS | RUNNING TIME: 127 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 26 July-6 August 2023 (JAPAN CUTS)
