As a result of rapid advances in the digitization and networking of information, the environment surrounding copyrights is undergoing dramatic change. Unfortunately, understanding of copyrights in Japan is far from adequate. Culture won't be nurtured unless the ethics exist in which the beneficiaries of outstanding cultural works show respect to their creators and pay an adequate price for them.

The recent indictment of a Tokyo University research assistant on a charge of encouraging people to violate the Copyright Law has drawn public attention to this truth. The accused is Mr. Isamu Kaneko, whose brainchild, a file-sharing software called "Winny," enables people to freely swap video and music data over the Internet.

There is no problem if users of Winny send video files that they have made themselves. But if they illegally copy and send movies and game software that are sold in stores, they infringe on the copyrights for the works. The Kyoto District Public Prosecutors Office has determined that Mr. Kaneko developed Winny with full knowledge that it would be used for illegal copying and, by doing so, has made illegal copying easier.