Japan Internet

Under current Japanese law, it's illegal to upload copyrighted material but as long as you are downloading copyrighted material for private use its perfectly legal. But not for long - the Japanese ministry of culture is going to pass law to make it very illegal.

This new law will mean that you will be breaking the law just by watching a recording of Japanese TV that has been uploaded to YouTube. Have no idea how they plan to enforce that.

Whats copyright infringement like in your region? Do you have a bit torrent client running 24/7? Can you buy pirated DVDs at your local store?
I know that Singaporean anime fans have been given grief for downloading anime by a company called ODEX. ODEX likes to work with ISPs to obtain lists of anime that you have downloaded - they then print that list and send it to your home! - read more at Zer0's site.

Downloading of copyrighted material will continue no matter what the government tries to do - humans always find a way. You know all the 720p HD anime video that you have been downloading? Well the original digital broadcast signal is encoded to make it impossible to record. However, a device that is easily obtainable in Akihabara is then use to decode the digital signal to analog which gets rid of the protection and allows that HD anime title to be recorded.

Rather than try to stop illegal downloading - maybe a way should be found to monetize from the situation. I was listening to Ashwin Navin (President and Co Founder of BitTorrrent) speak yesterday at the Web2.0 The New Context Conference 2007. Ashwin covered the current situation of illegal downloading and went on to describe how he is monetizing from the situation by working with studios such as Paramount, Universal etc.

The image in this post has nothing to do with this subject - shes Erika Sendo from the eroge Fortune Arterial out this Winter.
But if you download eroge then this image has everything to do with this post ^^