A South Korean resident of Kokubunji, western Tokyo, was arrested Monday on suspicion of violating the Copyright Law by posting pictures of female pop idols on his Web site without the permission of the photographer who took them.
Kim Yong, 38, who was identified as being unemployed, posted 80 pictures of female idols from Shanghai on his Web site on June 21 to allow unspecified viewers access to the pictures, investigators said.
The act infringed on a copyright held by a 41-year-old photographer from Tokyo's Minato Ward, they said.
Kim set up his Web site sometime around June 1999 and has so far posted some 8,000 pictures of female idols, including members of the popular Japanese idol group Morning Musume, which he scanned from about 500 photographic books and other materials, investigators said.
His Web site features advertising banners, from which Kim earned revenue from advertisers every time visitors clicked on them, they said.
He has told investigators that he opened the Web site to earn money and has made 9.5 million in the three years to this July, they said.
Police, who began investigating in May after receiving complaints from the photographer, now plan to send papers pertaining to Kim's violation of copyrights of Morning Musume to prosecutors.