A government panel approved a plan Wednesday to limit the scope of what is considered illegal downloading of any copyrighted work — including manga, computer games and literary writings — reversing its initial plan to restrict such online activity more broadly.
The Cultural Affairs Agency panel said a future amendment to the copyright law would not apply to partial downloads of copyrighted works, such as a few frames from a comic book or a screenshot of a copyrighted image.
The government has called for the scope of material for which downloads can be considered illegal — which is currently restricted to videos and music — to be broadened to include all copyrighted materials. It wants to punish serious offenders because losses to copyright holders caused by piracy have been on the rise.