June 11, 2009

By By Rob Schwartz, Tokyo

Japanese authorities are cracking down on the illegal distribution of music files over the Internet. The operators of a bulletin board system called One Touch have been warned to stop using copyright-protected material.

Five teenagers, who were all site administrators, were brought in for questioning by the police last week, including one 13-year old who was given juvenile probation. In recent months, two adults have been arrested for uploading songs to the site.

JASRAC, the Japanese rights' society, told Billboard.biz it made a compliant on May 18 to the local police in the city of Nagoya, where One Touch is based. After an investigation, police issued warnings to Aichi Information System, the operators of the BBS, and hauled in the five teenagers from the city of Fukuoka.

JASRAC has previously filed complaints about the same site and the police have taken action against two people in the last two months. In April a male university student was fined 600,000 yen ($6,120), and in May a 54-year-old male doctor was fined 500,000 yen ($5,100).

Some English-language services reported that the five teenagers were formerly arrested but JASRAC told Billboard.biz they were only questioned - with one consequently put on juvenile probation - as they were underage.

Subscribe to Billboard magazine today!