Looks to me like a case of the Japanese Court being urged into "revenge" by an embarrassed government.
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=3400Prosecutors on Monday demanded a one-year jail-term for the Japanese creator of Winny, a revolutionary file-sharing software that made it easier for people to commit copyright violations.
Isamu Kaneko "promoted copyrights violations, and (the program development) had grave social impact with similar cases following it," a prosecutor was quoted by Kyodo News as telling a district court in Kyoto.
The 35-year-old computer engineer has pleaded not guilty, saying during court hearings he had no intention of assisting people to download pirated films and music through his file-sharing network.
Kaneko's court hearing will conclude in September after the conclusion of his defense, Kyodo said.
Kaneko was arrested in 2004 for suspected conspiracy to commit copyright violation, the country's first arrest of a developer of file-sharing software.
Known only as "47" in cyberspace, Kaneko was a research assistant in a computer-engineering graduate course at Japan's most prestigious Tokyo University.
With all the recent publicity by the Japanese Government regarding Winny, I cant see how this guy is getting a fair trail, but I hope the court tries him for his actions and not those of others in using his software, that is a standard of decency we expect in all lands.
