OSAKA -- A Japanese court on Thursday handed down stiff penalties against three operators of a website that facilitated piracy of copyrighted content. While the ruling brought attention to rampant piracy, it also highlighted the inadequacies of existing laws to tackle the problem.
The website in question was a so-called leech site -- containing links to other piracy sites -- where visitors could navigate to copyrighted content such as manga. The website collected internet advertising fees based on view counts. The verdict painted the case as among the worst ever encountered in Japan, citing the significant losses incurred by copyright holders.
