Backstory: I'm going to Japan for the first time, and I summer job lined up.

Hey, this might be a dumb question, but I'd just like to be on the safe side. I want to bring my iPod to Japan, but it may or may not have some music that wasn't "purchased." Will they check an iPod for music that isnt purchased? I have no idea how they would even be able to tell, and maybe I'm just being paranoid, but like I said, I just want to be on the safe side.

Thanks for any responses!

Update: I'm just going to find the music in the iTunes store and just be on the safe side.

I've never had any electronics searched, but I suppose there's a first time for everything. They're more likely to look for pornography, I'd guess, in any case.

That's what I was also thinking, and I have none of that. I just wanted to make sure about the music, though.

dude, no. they will not backroom you and try to search your electronics for pirated software/media.

Yeah, but do they check for thoughtcrime?

I'll probably just bring my iPod and not download any of the Japanese rock that I want to listen to and just wait until I'm in Japan to buy CDs.

There's no way for them to tell whether or not you properly purchased that music (you could have just ripped it from CDs you legally owned, for example). So you don't have to worry.

I've actually been checked going into Japan to see if I had bought any 'pirated media' while abroad--I had come back to Japan from China. But they were just interested in looking at actual physical DVDs and the like. I was only checked because I was randomly chosen for a more extensive customs check--they brought me into a little room and checked my luggage and made me empty my pockets. They didn't turn on any of my electronic devices.

Vempele Wrote:Yeah, but do they check for thoughtcrime?

Just western countries for now I think

Customs is lax in my opinion, though it may depend on what country you are coming from. The most they'll do is open your suitcases and look through them. They might turn your electronics on but I've never seen them rifle through your computer looking for stuff.

[Zgarbas]

Don't worry about it. The only time I've ever heard of anyone having their electronics searched for piracy was when they were going into the US.

I had the same worry my first time going in! They almost never look through my bag. Usually a glance at my ID, then a nod. (Although I think they might consider women less "suspicious". But hey, for all they know I could be robbing banks! ;-) )

Zgarbas Wrote:Don't worry about it. The only time I've ever heard of anyone having their electronics searched for piracy was when they were going into the US.

Really? I didn't know the US did those...I haven't been searched for pirated stuff in US airports at all, but that could be because I'm American, or because I'm female so maybe I look less suspicious or something...Interesting to know about though.

Anyway, when entering Japan they looked through all my bags, but they didn't turn the electronics on or anything. I think they just wanted to make sure there were no bombs or drugs hidden in them, and then they put them back.

I havent been there yet, but I look at it from the logic of: "Out of all the people that probably go through that international airport daily, even out of those they randomly check, are they really going to spend much time turning on all my electronics or plugging in my portable hard drive or something in order to look for something which may or may not even be my own thing?" I feel like you'd have more of a chance of making the TSA angry at the American end then having Japanese customs search extensively for pirated music on your ipod, especially since it's harder to tell compared to when you can see it on Itunes (at least for me, maybe others have more experience).

Do you mind if I derail this thread momentarily?
Is there a lot of policing of the net in Japan? Such as high-profile arrests of people for pirating things? I know that torrents are really not big in Japan, especially compared to western countries, while Chinese sites stream live Japanese TV illegally.

Bokusenou Wrote:Really? I didn't know the US did those...I haven't been searched for pirated stuff in US airports at all, but that could be because I'm American, or because I'm female so maybe I look less suspicious or something...Interesting to know about though.

Its rarely at the airport that those things happen. Electronic searches are far more common at border crossings into the US, particularly US-Mexico.

tashippy Wrote:Is there a lot of policing of the net in Japan? Such as high-profile arrests of people for pirating things? I know that torrents are really not big in Japan, especially compared to western countries, while Chinese sites stream live Japanese TV illegally.

The velocity of lawsuits is far less in Japan, but there have been some cases. I can't think of any incidents in recent history where torrenters were targeted by companies, although some of the more popular P2P networks have been hit in the past. WinMX P2P was the first hit, this network lacked encryption/anonymity, so some Japanese started building some new networks. Winny was spawned from WinMX and that was anonymous but eventually the anonymity was cracked and people were arrested for trading. Then Share was made to fix Winny problems, and I believe there were some arrests after that was cracked, and then Perfect Dark was made. Perfect Dark inevitably had the same issue.

Since then there hasn't been any new P2P networks created in Japan.

@vix86 Ah, that makes sense!

@tashippy Besides the P2P cases, wasn't there a Japanese guy who got arrested for sharing part of Kaze Tachinu online? I don't think I've heard of cases where the downloaders got in trouble though.

EDIT: Wow, searching around for Japanese piracy news stories eventually lead me to this:
"「ぼく、タダで音楽聞けないと学校でいじめられるんだよ！」と叫んだ小学生の話"
http://careerconnection.jp/biz/pcsup/content_1369.html

Maybe Japanese laws on this are more lax than I thought..

Bokusenou Wrote:I don't think I've heard of cases where the downloaders got in trouble though.

When it comes to P2P, sharing and downloading are unanimous terms. There's rarely anyway to tell or look back through history to find out who put the first file up, all you know is that other people download it and then those people will upload new copies to other people.

vix86 Wrote:

Bokusenou Wrote:I don't think I've heard of cases where the downloaders got in trouble though.

When it comes to P2P, sharing and downloading are unanimous terms. There's rarely anyway to tell or look back through history to find out who put the first file up, all you know is that other people download it and then those people will upload new copies to other people.

Ah, yes I meant besides the P2P cases, though I guess I should have worded it more clearly. It's useful & good that you made the sharing and downloading thing clear though, given the direction the thread is heading.