Lawyer explains why the publisher of Japanese movie commentary was fined 500 million but earned only 7 million

The recent case in which Toho Pictures and 13 other film companies jointly sued two publishers of movie commentary short videos has caused a sensation. The two defendants were fined 500 million yen (reported by this site), which sparked heated discussions. Recently, some media consulted a professional lawyer to explain why the two were fined 500 million yen when their actual profit was only 7 million.

• Lawyer Abe stated that according to Article 114, Paragraph 1 of the Japanese Copyright Law, the amount of loss due to movie piracy is calculated based on "number of plays x estimated loss amount for each play". In this case, the estimated loss was calculated based on the rental price of each movie. The average rental price of each movie in Japan starts at 400 yen. The estimated loss amount for each play in this case was calculated at 200 yen, resulting in a sky-high fine of 500 million yen.

•In addition, the lawyer also mentioned the issue of compensation ability. If the defendant deliberately refuses to compensate, the plaintiff can apply for compulsory execution. If the defendant files for bankruptcy, the debt can be exempted in principle. However , if the defendant’s motive for committing a crime is judged to be "malicious", the debt cannot be exempted.

•Therefore, the final execution focus of this case actually depends on whether the act of "movie commentary" is judged to be "malicious", and there is no definite conclusion yet.