4 Arrested in Japan for Selling DVD Copy Book with DRM Circumvention Software

According to the Daily Yomiuri, Japanese authorities have arrested four employees publishing company Sansai Books for selling a book (pictured right) on how to copy DVDs which came bundled with DRM circumvention software.

The law in question is Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act, and apparently the magazine was sold on the Sansai Books website between February 9 and April 21 even after the Japan Video Software Association warned them to stop.

Blogger Francesco Fondi astutely points out that such books are being sold over on Amazon Japan as well. While the offending book is not currently listed on Amazon, it appears to have been available on Amazon as recently as July 14 as you can see from this cached link. We’ve reached out to both Amazon and Amazon Japan this evening to find out more (perhaps they were asked to politely remove it?), and we’ll post an update if we hear anything.

Looking outside Japan in comparison, there have been exceptions made in the prohibition of breaking copy protection for non-infringing purposes.

[h/t @noruweijin]