Is the act of link creation really aiding act of crime?

It has already been reported here and there,Osaka prefectural police announcementAccording to launching a membership-based Lolita website on the Internet, arrested open organizers and others who had instructed members the address (URL) indicating the location of child pornography on public child display pornography offense, on the free rental bulletin board He said that he self-employed, who had stored pornographic images of children, was arrested and sent for offense display of child pornography.

Asahi ShimbunAccording to reports reportedly, arrested on suspicion of assisting children's pornographic public display accurately, this site is a paid membership system. Permanent member is 34,000 yen, single year member is 26,000 yen, from June 2003 to now the number of members is about 2450, total sales exceed 10 million yen.

So, the problem is not the reason that I pasted the image unlike so far, but rather the reason to paste the imageEven taught a link, it was arrested as "assistance" of 'Child pornography public display'The fact that. Although this time it was an image, this is expanding and interpreted rapidly and it is not such a situation that the abuse of police power is impossible, so even if a link is arbitrarily made by blog comment or trackback etc., it is this theory "It may be said that you are arrested and it is quite a mess.

So, I tried various investigations as to why the police are going to take care of this case, on what point he was arrested on judgment, and whether there are such examples worldwide.
First of all, we have news reporting on this issue.

Slashdot Japan | The operators of sites introducing child pornography URLs, arrested and charged with public assistance display

Asahi.com: arresting paid member website operators of child pornographic enthusiasts Osaka - Society

Tokyo newspaper: arrested on introducing child pornography HP, Osaka prefectural police, first nationwide: society (TOKYO Web)

ITmedia News: Pornographic site link collection operator, arrested for infringement of childhood law

Induction to the girls pornographic image board, first discover link posting: News: Kansai departure: YOMIURI ONLINE (Yomiuri Shimbun)

Current affairs dot com: arresting company employee address posting = introduction of pornographic site, nationwide first - Osaka prefectural police

In the introduction of the URL of the child pornography site, the first arrested person nationwide

J-CAST News: "Penalty" search engine is also dangerous on pornographic image links!

"If you are asked about" Houju "on the link, it will affect not only child pornography but also defamation.For example, even if you are linking to a website that wrote a bad mouth of the prime minister, Not only will the person who wrote it be asked, but also the person who wrote it (linked up) can be guilty, which will expand the range too much. "

In overseas, there is a case that we decided to incur the liability for damages to the person who opened the link site because the direct link to the MP3 file is assisting copyright infringement.

Ogura Hideo's "Top Front of IT Law" Napster.no Incident

In the first place what is aiding act? Therefore, the following is very detailed about assistance.

Kimoto Honpo brain scoring traveler (2004-05-14)

【The 78th Legal Liability of Provider (Osaka FL Mask Obscene Image Trial) (Part 2)】 (Attorney / Patent Attorney Hino Masao)

Therefore, to be accurate, "assistance" is an act to facilitate the act of executing a former offender by an act other than the act of committing a crime.

In this way, the concept of assistance is a very broad concept, and regardless of tangible acts such as providing tools and places, cheering acts such as providing information on crime and strengthening criminal intent as "boy" , There is an example which acknowledged assistance also for inaction which the person who should stop the crime does not stop it.

Because it can be applied to a fairly wide range, depending on the way of interpretation, it is the fact that you want to do as much as you want.

Also, concerning this case, Mr. Toru Okumura has published considerably detailed views on his site, which is very helpful.

Toru Okumura's view - Arresting company employee on address posting - Pornographic site introduction, nationwide first - Osaka prefectural police

Even if you see "well understood", it is subtle whether it is a display crime or a provisional offer, or a primary or an assistant, and I am not sure.

Items such as "What kind of crime will be established if hyperlinks are set in the site that allows you to view images of Q50 kindergartener pornography" in the book "Revised Child Prostitution / Child Pornography Prohibited Law" Yes, it is unknown uncertain even if I read it. It also wrote that it is a line of child pornography relationship of the Cybercrime Treaty.

Cybercrime Convention (Final Draft) Japanse Translation (Tentative) by Takato NATSUI

Article 9 Child pornography related crime

1. A Contracting Party shall intentionally adopt legislation and other measures that may be necessary to punish as a criminal offense under its national law in the event that the following acts are done without rights:

A. To manufacture child pornography for the purpose of dissemination through the computer system

B. To provide or make child pornography available through computer systems

C. Distribution or transmission of child pornography through computer systems

D. To obtain child pornography through a computer system for self or others

E. Possess child pornography within the computer system or on a computer data storage medium

However, what is "Child pornography" written in this? Definition is decided considerably in detail. It feels like the following.

2. In paragraph 1 above, "Child pornography" shall include pornographic materials that visually depict the following:

A minor undertaking outright sexual activity;
B. Person who seems to be a minor undertaking outright sexual activity;
C. Photorealistic image that expresses as minor undertaking outright sexual activity

It seems that visual information needs to be included, so if it is a link with only strings it seems quite difficult to apply in this direction. So, it is reasonable to think that arrest was reached by interpretation only on "Child pornographic public display crime" and "assistance".

When reading bulletin boards and blogs etc discussing this case on the Internet, it is often said that "Is arrested because it is charged?" Let's see this around here.

Internet crime (obscene)

In addition, a provider that offers pornographic images on the Internet for a fee has an obligation to notify the Public Safety Commission as a "video transmission type sex custom specialist". If you neglect to file a notification, it will be subject to punishment.

I did not provide this image directly because I did not provide the image directly, I can not deny the possibility of losing warnings and cautionary guidance leading to arrest. Because it seems that attention is coming due to haste because it is monitored although it is subject to monitoring if it is reported that it is a story heard. There is also such a story.

Northern system 2003 / materials / Diet / Child pornography Simple possession restriction

Then, although it will be a small detail, in Article 7, distribution of child pornography etc is subject to punishment. Distribution, sale, lending as public business or public display. Although it will be confirmed, is it understandable that understanding that personal reproduction is not subject to punishment as a crime?

○ In the case of Otomon House of Councilors Article 7, production, possession, transportation or import / export etc are not punished unless there is a purpose to distribute, sell child pornography, lend it as a business, or publicly display it. For personal reproduction that does not have such a purpose, I think that it does not correspond to manufacturing for the purpose of distribution etc. I think it depends on purpose.

After all it seems that it was an important point as police that having earned money on this case.

In addition, this time is not "an obscene drawing openly display" but "child pornographic public display crime", so what is "child pornography" in the first place? That is why it seems like that when I look at the definition in "Law concerning child prostitution, acts related to child pornography, etc. and protection of children".

Child pornography means photographs, video tapes, and other things that fall under any of the following.

· Described by a method that allows children to be opponents or to visually confirm the appearance of children involved in sexual intercourse or sexual intercourse acts
· Described in a way that can be visually confirmed by the act of touching the genitals etc of the child by another person or the form of the child related to the act of the child touching other person's sexual organs, exciting or stimulating sexual desire
· Described in a way that children can not wear all or part of their clothes and excited or excited libido visually can be confirmed

In other words, if you click on the link, you can check it visually, so it is possible that it is out ...... Also, in the law amendment in 2004, Article 7 paragraph 1 of the Child Pornography Act "Provision"Is newly established and it is also pointed out that it is subject to punishment even in" offering for specific and few people ". The following article is detailed about this point.

Lawyer Yamaguchi Takashi speaks a lot: 【Child pornography】 U-15 Gravure radicalization 9-year-old T back idol appeared 【Fear of offer】 【Fear of simple possession restriction】

A reporter) But I did not know that this is "child pornography". There is no "willful", is not it?

Yamaguchi) You are studying hard. However, in this case, intention is established if there is a degree of recognition that it is a photo album containing children's nasty photos.

Reporter) Then, we can not interview on the problem of child pornography.

Yamaguchi: "Offering", there is even a debate that it is simply a possession, sin. The opinion that "trying to possess simple possession" seems to be persistent, especially in the LDP. In short, it is meant to make "child pornography" a forbidden item like "stimulant drug".

When the police move, it may be moved by a childish judgment of the workplace simply, but behind it there is pressure from the political direction "Since I want to make this kind of flow this time, I am particularly focused on this matter Let's go to "actually. This case will not be irrelevant to the flow around here. And if dealing with the case which is requested from such political direction, police officers in charge will not only increase salary as well as remember from the top that the score will be increased.

As for the point that the big problem of this time "Act as to link is originally aiding act?" Is as follows.
Let's think about between the law and common sense: Internet regulation

And this problem is a question of whether the act of linking can act as an aid in the first place. Regarding this point, the fact that Professor Honda Sonoda and Professor of Konan University 's lawyer says the following will be helpful (the "Question and Answer" column of Penal Code in the Dentistry World).

"The act of linking itself can be said to be quite ordinary act on the Internet, but even if there is no illegality in manufacturing or selling the fruit knife itself, for example, a person who tries to commit a murder knows that fruit Lending a knife is also a natural aid to the murder.I think that link act is a natural act on the Internet, I think that it is difficult to be a ground for denying assistance of public display of obscene drawing. "

I once mentioned in this book about this point in my book (see my book "Forefront Internet Q & A Collection / Cyberspace Law Introduction" (1997, Information Management) on page 184).

"The act of linking is to describe the URL of the link on the homepage and prompt public transmission from the linked website, but it is not more than that, in principle, link As a result, even if obscene image data is posted on the homepage of the linked site, as for the act of linking itself, its accomplice (assistant offender) However, in the case where it is easier to access the homepage by promoting the homepage by further recognizing the content of the linked website and linking it, , It seems that there may be cases where an auspicious offender of the obscene drawing obligation display is established. "

It is written long ago, but even now it seems that this view is basically valid. And although the viewpoint is slightly different from Professor Sonoda's viewpoint, it seems that there is not much difference in the result.

Therefore, whether this theory can be applied to the search service is the next question.

Search service, for example Yahoo! And Google etc can be a great assistance, but in the past Yahoo! Before being questioned as to whether or not it is asked whether there is a past requested by the document so as not to issue an illegal account trading site from the Metropolitan Police Department search results, I do not go and search for houses or arrest them. " So I wonder if the search service provider may be protesting a lot from this case as "We are in danger of surviving the service of our company!"

In any case, since it has already been prosecuted, depending on the result it is possible that quite a shake of the net service and the way of operation in Japan is possible, so it is important to be concerned in the future development.