Tokyo High Court Decision, File Rogue case, March 31, 2005, upholding Tokyo District Court

(1) With respect to a copyright infringement case involving Channel 2 where a user uploaded a small part of a copyrighted work onto the bulletin board, the Tokyo District Court held that Channel 2 only had a duty to remove works suspected of copyright infringement if it transmitted the infringing content or otherwise it was “obvious” the content infringed a third party’s copyright. The Tokyo District Court stated that Channel 2 was only an intermediary for transmitting third party information and that the sender of the email that contained the copyrighted work was the party that committed the unlawful act.  

(2) However, the appellant court (Tokyo High Court) reversed the Tokyo District Court decision and ruled that it was obvious that the uploaded contents are simply a copy of copyrighted work, and therefore Channel 2 had a duty to remove the works.

(3) The parties appealed to the Tokyo High Court, which reversed the decision, stating that although in certain situations, the administrator and Nifty Serve should delete the libelous statement. In the present case, the administrator’s action was not too late.