Two Chinese subbing fans were arrested on Wednesday for uploading and publishing Japanese animes online, media reported.
The police in Kyoto, Japan claimed on Wednesday that Wang Liang, 30, and Yang Wangyi, 20, have confessed to uploading and publishing Japanese animes on the Internet, which violated the country's national Copyright Law, Japanese news site jiji.com reported Wednesday.
The Chinese consulate in Kyoto could not be reached by the Global Times as of press time.
Wang was accused of uploading a Japanese popular anime titled The Heroic Legend of Arslan on July 31 while Yang uploaded Fate/kailei liner on August 18, said the report.
The Global Times found that episodes of both animes are still available on some Chinese video sites.
The pair were identified as members of the Chinese Fansub Group, a Chinese hobbyist community providing various foreign videos with Chinese subtitles for free, jiji.com quoted the Kyoto police as saying.
"It is the first time that subbing fans have been arrested for copyright infringement," a man surnamed Zhou, who is working for a Guangdong-based fansub group "Gameviewcn," told the Global Times on Thursday.
Zhou noted that the "guild regulation" encourages fansub members to upload translated subtitles only.
