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After huge amounts of pressure from the movie, music and software industries, Japan’s ISP’s have agreed to work with copyright holders to ban persistent pirates from the internet entirely using “Special Detection Software” to help track down those responsible for persistent copyright infringement on the Japanese “Winny” P2P network.

This new agreement will be enforced by around 1000 smaller, local providers along with four major organisations in Japan, including the Telecom Service Association and the Telecommunications Carriers Association.

The estimated user base for file-sharing software, such as Winny, in Japan is roughly 1.75 million people, most of which use it for less-than-legal purposes such as transferring copyright material like movies, music and computer software (including games).

Two years ago a similar measure was suggested by a major internet provider to ban any user detected using the Winny software, but the government had to step in over worries of invasion of privacy. Hopefully the government can do something about this new plan before all our Japanese friends have to watch their back whenever they log on.

What worries me most about this is that my home country, Australia, also proposed similar plans a year or two back. What is the world coming to?

via yomiuri.co.jp