Toshiba Employee Arrested for Facilitating Piracy

A Japanese man who works for Toshiba was arrested for commercializing software which disables the “Dubbing 10” copy limitation technology embedded into DVD recorders. The program enabled people to create unlimited copies of digital broadcast TV programs.

Under Japan's copyright legislation, it is illegal to make copies and distribute copies of digital television (DTT) programs. In 2007, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association mandated that hardware able to record DTT should be restricted at creating only 10 copies of the same program.

As a result, Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers, including Toshiba, started implementing a special Digital Rights Management function called “Dubbing 10” into their products, specifically for this purpose. Police suspects Tetsuya Masumura, 39, who works at a Toshiba factory in Saku, Nagono Prefecture, of selling special software capable of subverting this restriction and enable people to create unlimited copies of protected content.

Authorities have reason to believe that the Toshiba employee sold the software to an unnamed college student from Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, as well as others, via the Internet. The teenager, who allegedly acquired the program from Masumura for only 650 yen ($7.5), went on to sell it to 240 more individuals, racking almost 145,000 yen ($1,674).

The evidence gathered by the police suggests that Masumura sold the software himself to 712 people during 2008, making a profit of 493,000 yen ($5,692). "I intended to earn some pocket money," he commented, according to TMC News.

Toshiba explains that Masumura is in charge of developing industrial-use rechargeable batteries. "It is very regrettable that our employee was arrested for such an allegation. We will strictly handle the matter in accordance with further developments of the investigation," the company says, through its public relations department.

The authorities are also investigating a 28-year-old man in Yuki, Ibaraki Prefecture, who also allegedly bought the program from Masumura last October. The origin of the software has not yet been determined and the Toshiba employee denied to have created it himself.