No Spoilers! Japanese Copyright Infringer Receives A Stiff Penalty

As fearsome as Godzilla has proven to be over the decades, the indomitable kaiju may have found its foil in Japanese copyright law. A Tokyo court recently found several individuals guilty of violating Japanese law for publishing spoiler-heavy posts, including in relation to a recent Godzilla movie, on an entertainment review website. The penalty for one of the individuals? An 18-month jail sentence and a stiff monetary fine (equivalent to over $6,000 U.S.) according to press reports.

The case arose based upon complaints brought by a Japanese trade group, Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) on behalf of the owners of the IP rights to Godzilla and an anime series called Overlord, Toho Co., Ltd. and Kadokawa Corporation. Police investigated and ultimately arrested the individuals behind the website and posts, including the apparent website owner Wataru Takeuchi. Japanese prosecutors brought a criminal case, overseen by Tokyo District Court Judge Jun Shimato. On April 16, 2026, Judge Shimato found that the descriptions of the scenes, plots, and elements of the entertainment being “reviewed” in the posts on the website in question went beyond mere “fair use” of the elements of the works. 

Copyright laws in most countries—including the United States—allow certain descriptions of films, TV shows, and other works, which might otherwise be considered infringing, if the author is writing a commentary on, or review of, the works. In this case, however, Japanese prosecutors argued that the posts on the website in question contained so much detail that they crossed over from mere commentary to being an unauthorized adaptation. For example, some of the posts in question contained long quotes of verbatim dialogue from Godzilla Minus One and Overlord, published along with numerous images from the works. The prosecutors successfully argued that these posts were so detailed, and contained little to no commentary, such that the posts might discourage consumers from actually watching the movies or anime because they would already know substantial details about the works. The prosecutors also alleged that the website made hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad revenue, driven by views of their posts, including posts about Godzilla and Overlord.

Although U.S. infringers won’t face this kind of jail time, the arguments raised in the Japanese case are not so different from those seen in many litigations over commentary versus adaptations in the U.S. One example is a famous U.S. Court of Appeals decision from the early 1990s, Twin Peaks Productions v. Publications International (which you can read more about here). In that case, the owners of the IP from the cult TV show Twin Peaks argued that an unauthorized book was so detailed that it would dissuade consumers from renting or buying episodes of the show. The plaintiffs ultimately prevailed in that case, although the infringers only had to pay monetary damages, rather than spend time in jail.

The Japanese case provides a good reminder: think before you post those spoilers and consider whether you are crossing the line from commentary to adaptation. Websites and social media pages that focus on detailed, spoiler-heavy film summaries may find themselves in the cross-hairs of companies that want to protect their IP. 

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