Spoiler Summary Website Operator Convicted With Suspended Sentence

Image via CODA

© 2024 Content Overseas Distribution Association

The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) announced on Thursday that the Tokyo District Court has declared a guilty verdict for Wataru Takeuchi, a 39-year-old man who had uploaded detailed written storyline spoiler summary articles on his website, most notably for the Godzilla Minus One film and the Overlord III anime.

The court found the spoiler articles to exceed fair use and violate copyright law. According to the court, a creation of a work in a different form without permission violates copyright law if it retains "essential characteristics" of the original. The proseuction argued that the detailed spoilers provided, essentially a transcript, was sufficient to convey the film, while the defense asserted that a text-only article was not enough to depict the visuals and audio that could only be presented through the full movie. The prosecution further stated that these actions may defer people from watching the actual movie. Regardless, the court found Takeuchi guilty and sentenced him to one year and six months in prison with a fine of 1 million yen (about US$6,300), suspended for four years.

The court had also found the 46-year-old man, who wrote the detailed spoiler article of Godzilla Minus One on the website, guilty last July. The defendant in this case claimed that he did not record the movie, but rather memorized it well. Regardless, the court found him guilty and fined him 500,000 yen (about US$3,100). The defense did not appeal.

The Miyagi Prefectural Police and Tome Police Station arrested three men - a 38-year-old company manager from Shibuya Ward, a 33-year-old company employee from Shinjuku Ward, and a 45-year-old part-time employee from Kodaira City - in October 2024, on suspicion of violating the Copyright Act for transcribing stories from films and other copyrighted works, and posting them on a "spoiler site" without permission.

According to CODA, between January and February 2024, the arrested men transcribed detailed content — including the entire story, character names, lines and actions, scenes, and developments — of the 2023 live-action Godzilla Minus One film, one other film copyrighted by TOHO, and the 2018 Overlord III anime series, copyrighted by Kadokawa. The contents were posted without permission from the rights holders on a so-called "spoiler site" operated by the arrested men's company.

CODA stated that as a result of the police investigation, it was discovered that the company's management and employees colluded to systematically commit copyright infringement and operate the website for profit, with the large number of hits it gains.

According to CODA, these "spoiler sites" that transcribe full contents of movies have been considered problematic. CODA explained that the act of transcribing is considered less of an infringement compared to pirated or illegal upload sites, but it is still an act that goes beyond the scope of quoting, and is clearly a serious crime of copyright infringement.

CODA added that the problem with these "spoiler sites" is that they reduce people's eagerness to pay a fair price for the content, which can lead to people not watching the full movie, causing great damage to the rights holders.

Sources: CODA, Kadokawa, The Mainichi (Kotaro Adachi), The Japan News

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.