Conan's Victory is Justice

Chapter 163 Question: Will I be arrested for writing Japanese anime fans abroad?
Today, the case of factory pollution is over, and half a year has passed.

Moreover, the current Gu Meimen has to repay the mortgage, and urgently needs a sum of money to settle the balance of the house.

It's time to move on to that commission.

Of course, before that, Gu Meimen needs to confirm it first.

What is the current progress of plagiarized novels, and whether plagiarism really exists.

So, some time ago, he assigned Xiao Ai some work in this area.

"Oh, that matter, in fact, I almost finished investigating that night, and I forgot if you didn't tell me."

"So fast?"

"Nonsense, who do you think I am? You are lucky in your life to hire such a good employee as me."

Xiao Ai gave Gu Meimen a white look.

Then, he opened the work document on the laptop and called up a file inside.

Open the file, which is a form document.

A paragraph of text is displayed on both sides of the table, and within the paragraphs of text, there are occasional annotations in different colors.

It looks like a color palette.

"I read both novels, and I can confirm that there is plagiarism in them."

Xiao Ai came to a conclusion first.

She stretched out her pale finger and pointed to the words on the palette.

"The excerpts on the left side of the form are Kimura's original novel "The Wandering Tanuki", and the one on the right is Daisuke Torakura's plagiarized novel "The Adventures of the Shield Black Cat". I have marked the passages that involve plagiarism in the same color."

Gu Meimen looked carefully and nodded.

Indeed, as Xiao Ai said, there are many similar words in the two novels.

The plagiarized novel extracts certain excerpts from the original novel, uses the method of "Japanese translation", slightly changes the subject-verb-object grammar of the text, and then becomes its own.

This method is commonly known as "washing text".

It is a shameless and common method of plagiarism in novels.

"Very good." Gu Meimen nodded, "So how is the current progress of the plagiarized novel? How much money did the plagiarist make?"

Xiao Ai replied: "The progress is almost 70 words, the seventh volume has been written, and the eighth volume is being written. The contents of the first seven volumes are currently on sale in various bookstores and online electronic sales platforms across the country, and they are very popular."

Gu Meimen raised her eyebrows: "Half a year has passed, why did you write so much?"

"This progress is very fast. During this period of time, the plagiarist has written at least 40 words." Xiao Ai reminded, "He is a very diligent author in the light novel channel that was serialized on the Internet and opened at the same time."

"So what, it's only 40 words in half a year, what a waste!"

Gu Meimen shook her head and said so.

Can it be waste?
It's the same web text, so try switching to the web text of the country across the ocean.

With this progress, I'm afraid I'm going to starve to death, and I'm going to roll you to death.

If you don’t write [-] words a day for the web articles of the country across the ocean, can the author be called the author?

waste!waste!waste!

What's more, the structure of Japanese is much more scattered than that language.

A sentence has the same meaning, and Japanese can add more than a dozen characters casually.

If it is watered down again, there is not much actual content in a chapter at all.

After sighing, Gu Meimen asked again: "So, what about animation games and other peripherals, are there any releases?"

"The animation has already been released, the first season has ended, the ratings have been well received, and the second season is being planned. At the same time, the game copyright has also been taken over by the studio, and the production progress is very fast. Currently, the trial version has been released on the Nintendo Switch and Steam platforms. In addition, a series of peripheral toys are being developed by designers and entrusted to manufacturers for production."

Xiao Ai said, and operated the mouse to open another document.

Inside is a histogram.

The statistical chart lists the royalties and copyright fees received by plagiarists in various fields.

"To sum up, the current profit of the plagiarist, after deducting taxes and a series of miscellaneous expenses, is estimated to have exceeded one billion yen."

"So tall?"

This time, even Gu Meimen raised her eyebrows.

"He can make so much money in such a short period of time by writing such a few words?"

Gu Meimen usually doesn't pay much attention to Japanese light novels, and has little interest in these things. After such a calculation, he almost surprised him.

"Daisuke Torakura is a great writer, one of the best-selling writers in Japan."

Xiao Ai pushed the glasses on the bridge of her nose.

"I see."

Gu Meimen nodded.

This is normal.

The profession of a writer can also be regarded as a tool for attracting money.

But not every writer makes money.

Most of the writers are on the street and can only eat a living, and some can't even afford it.

Only top writers can live a glamorous life, and people think that the income in this industry is very high, giving people the illusion that they can make money.

Here, Xiao Ai hesitated for a moment.

"Well, actually, I've always had a question."

"Say."

"I remember that Article 119 of the Copyright Law stipulates that anyone who infringes upon an author's copyright, publishing right, or neighboring rights shall be sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of not more than ten years and a fine of not more than 1000 million yen."

Xiao Ai moved her mouth, she seemed a little unbearable to see her appearance.

"You asked Kimura to deliberately wait for the plagiarist to write a lot of words, and then let the plagiarist produce animations, games, and peripherals, which greatly expanded the influence. If the plagiarist loses the civil lawsuit, he will inevitably be charged with criminal charges. Isn't it equivalent to sending the other party to prison?"

"Tsk, my Doraemon, I have some sympathy for you, so there is no need to spam."

Gu Meimen raised a finger and shook it lightly.

"In Europe, America and Japan, the enforcement of copyright laws is already quite strict. Since plagiarists dare to copy, they have to prepare for jail time beforehand. According to the strength of copyright control in Japan, even if you write an anime fan, you will be arrested. I don't need to arrange this kind of thing. As long as you write, the person will definitely go to jail. And plagiarism is shameful, no matter what, he deserves it."

"Well, you're right."

Xiao Ai thought for a while, and agreed with Gu Meimen's point of view.

She wrinkled her little nose, as if thinking of something again.

"You said that writing anime fans in Japan will also be arrested, but if someone writes anime fans in other countries, such as countries across the ocean, will they be arrested?"

Gu Meimen raised her eyebrows: "Why do you suddenly have doubts about this?"

"On a whim." Xiao Ai said, "Isn't I learning the language of the country across the ocean recently? During this period of time, I surfed the Internet and logged in to the website there, looking for some novels to read, and found that the writers over there were overwhelmingly writing about Japanese fans. I would like to ask, are these people infringing rights?"

"Why not, of course it is an infringement." Gu Meimen replied directly.

Xiao Ai nodded: "Well, then they will all go in, and they will all be sentenced."

"What punishment? It can't be sentenced."

Gu Meimen disagrees.

"You may not have studied the laws of Japan thoroughly, and you can recite Article [-] of the Japanese Criminal Code to me."

"Uh……"

Xiao Ai blinked, then backtracked.

"The first general provisions of the Japanese Criminal Law, Chapter 1 General Provisions, Article [-], this law applies to persons who commit crimes in Japan, and also applies to persons who commit crimes outside Japan but on board ships and aircraft registered in Japan..."

Xiao Ai had recited this passage to him when he took refuge in Gu Meimen.

(See Chapter 21)
"Do you know what this passage means?" Gu Meimen asked.

Xiao Ai thought for a while, and replied: "I understand, the Japanese law is the 'territorial principle', so only those who commit crimes in the local area will be arrested and sent to prison."

"It seems that you are not too stupid."

Gu Meimen smiled and touched Xiao Ai's little head.

The latter gave him a blank stare.

"Understood? In countries across the ocean, no matter how they write fanfiction, it is all done in their own country. In Japan, because the criminal law uses the 'territorial principle', there is no way to arrest and sentence them. In essence, these people are innocent, because that's what the law stipulates. Unless some of them travel to Japan and update their novels in Japan, the police will come to arrest them the next moment."

"Uh, then these authors infringe on the copyright casually, so no one cares about it?"

"It will be taken care of. Although he is not guilty in the criminal case, he still constitutes a tort liability in the civil case. As long as he sues, he will have to pay money."

Gu Meimen said so.

Immediately, he changed the subject.

"However, do you know who are the people who write fanfic over there? They are a bunch of poor, poor, poor guys. They work hard every day thinking about plot codes, and they only get such a small amount of remuneration. They can't get enough to eat. If they don't write well, they will be scolded by readers. How stressful they are. What can I get if I go across the country and sue these guys who have nothing? The compensation they get may not be as much as the money spent by a lawyer..."

Gu Meimen said a lot, Xiao Ai was taken aback for a while.

After a while, she looked Gu Meimen up and down: "You seem to know a lot about this."

"I knew a little bit about it before."

Gu Meimen shrugged.

"In short, you have to know that the concept of law is that only when a 'claim' is formed can we talk about illegal crimes. Civil cases are private prosecution cases, which have always followed the principle of 'whoever claims, who proves'. If there is no claim, it is equivalent to no violation of the law."

Paused.

"Do you know "Gintama"?" Gu Meimen asked.

Xiao Ai nodded: "I've heard of it, it's the anime that plays around with other works."

"That's right." Gu Meimen said, "Strictly speaking, the animation of Gintama definitely has various infringements. As long as someone sues it, it will inevitably lose the lawsuit. But because the author is very popular, no one sues, so not only is it fine, but it has also been made into an animation and broadcast on TV. Can you say that Gintama is illegal?"

Xiao Ai shook her head and said, "It's not against the law."

"So, if someone really writes about a co-defendant, then he is really breaking the law at this time, and he can only be considered unlucky. After all, the plaintiff will only lose money if he fights this kind of lawsuit once, and won't make much money."

"I see."

Xiao Ai nodded.

At this time, the girl rested her hands on her chin, her big eyes sparkled, and she listened with gusto.

Gu Meimen occasionally gave her some legal knowledge.

Xiao Ai especially likes this kind of time, and can always learn a lot of interesting knowledge.

(End of this chapter)