A Japanese man aged 43 was arrested after using artificial intelligence (AI) to remove pixels from pornographic videos and selling them online.
Mainichi reports that On October 18th, Masayuki Nakamoto, a resident of Takasago in Hyogo Prefecture, got arrested for violating the Copyright Act and displaying obscene media. This is the first such case of an individual getting arrested for such accusations.
According to VICE News, Nakamoto takes snaps of porn stars from Japanese adult videos and alters them with the AI using the same method used to make deepfake face swaps. Instead of swapping faces, Nakamoto used the software to reconstruct blurred areas of the video using many uncensored nudes.
Japan has a strict obscenity law that prohibits any sexual/explicit depictions in pornographic videos of genitals.
Nakamoto was charged with violating the copyright of a Tokyo-based production company on January 9th. He processed a pornographic film with the pixelated parts removed and sold them. Nakamoto was also accused of creating obscenities from the video and posting them on his website, which he created in November 2020.
This exposed his crimes to a vast online audience. According to reports, he made around whopping 11 million ($96,000) yen selling more than 10,000 deepfake video files. However, he was also explicitly arrested for selling ten false photos at approximately 2,300 yen ($20) each.
According to NHK, Nakamoto was caught during what is called a “cyber patrol.” He then pleaded guilty and was charged with copyright violation as well as displaying obscene imagery. He admitted his crimes and did it solely for money.
“This is the first Japanese case where police have arrested an AI user,” Daisuke Sueyoshi said, a lawyer who has tried cases involving cybercrime.
“At this time, there is no law that criminalizes the use of AI to create such images.”
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