What’s up with the 2ch.net lawsuit?
A bit of background: 2channel is a massive, extremely popular Japanese text-only forum which (like the karehas and imageboards it inspired) encourages anonymous contributors. Naturally, many of those contributors are total fuckwads. Thus, Nishimura Hiroyuki, owner and operator of 2channel, has been targeted by a number of lawsuits. For example, hiroyuki was sued by Debito Arudou back in April 2005. Since hiroyuki never showed up for trial, in January 2006 the court automatically awarded the plaintiff 1,100,000 yen. At that point, hiroyuki “disappeared”, court summons and legal letters went unanswered, attempts to garnish his wages were unsuccessful because apparently the guy has no salary (!), and so Arudou was left with nothing.
Now, today I found an article suggesting that 2channel’s legal problems might force it to close. More specifically: in August 2006, a “45-year-old Tokyo office worker” sued hiroyuki to get to reveal the IP address of some anonymous stalker who had revealed the office worker’s IRL name. Hiroyuki never showed up to court, so the plaintiff won by default. In September, the judge decided to fine hiroyuki for 50,000 yen per day for failing to comply with the court’s decision. 100 days have passed, hiroyuki owes 5 million yen, and now his property — a moped, computer, and the 2ch.net domain name — are in danger of being seized.
Note that I can’t read Japanese, but some kind soul on dvach had translated half of the article into Russian.
The article does not mention “45-year-old Tokyo office worker”’s identity. However, since Arudou is a 41-year-old professor who lives in Hokkaido, this seems to be a totally separate lawsuit.
One’s first reaction obviously is that the sky is falling, 2channel is closing, end of civilization is nigh. However, as you can see by visiting 2channel, the site is still very much operational. And there is now a second article on itmedia on the subject. Google translate and babelfish can’t make much sense of it, but I get the impression that the main message is that news of 2channel’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. This impression was strengthened by a brief browse of 2ch.net with Google translate.
Perhaps someone who can read Japanese could elaborate? There are absolutely nothing in English or Russian written about this topic. Is 2channel in actual danger, or is this all just hysteria? Or even a hoax?
Anyway, here’s the original Russian translation I had found on двач:
Перевод начала статьи.
Домен “2ch.net” будет арестован?
Как сообщает ZAKZAK, истец требует наложить предварительный арест на всё имущество администратора 2ch Хироюки. Сообщается, что арест будет наложен и на домен “2ch.net”.
Обновлено в 12.01.2007, 14:34
Сетевое сообщество потрясено! Как нам стало известно 12 января, на всё имущество администратора самого крупного в Японии интернет-форума, 30-летнего Хироюки Нисимуры, будет наложен предварительный арест за продолжающееся игнорирование требования о компенсации ущерба. Имущество, которое истец просит арестовать, включает банковский счёт Нисимуры, его мопед, компьютер и сетевой адрес его виртуального жилища 2ch, домен “2ch.net”. В случае исполнения судом этого требования, неизбежно прекращение работы форума.
В иске, поданным во первой половине дня 12-го числа, истец, 35-летний токийский офисный служащий, требует взыскать с Нисимуры примерно 5 000 000 иен.
Истец, обнаружив, что на 2ch запощены его настоящее имя и имена членов его семьи, а также домашний адрес, вместе с оскорблениями вида “отбросы общества” и “сетевой сталкер”, в августе прошлого года подал иск в Токийский окружной суд на администратора Нисимуру, с требованием раскрыть информацию о запостившем.
Нисимура в суд так и не явился, и в сентябре было вынесено предварительное решение с требованием раскрытия информации, но так как ответчиком не было предринято никаких действий, было принято решение о наложении пени в размере 50 000 иен за каждый день просрочки выполнения требования. Нисимура по-прежнему продолжал игнорировать судебное решение, и через 100 дней с момента вынесения требования пеня выросла до 5 000 000 иен.
Дальше пока лень переводить
January 25th, 2007 at 7:12
I’ve found your blog to be the most informative page in English on this issue thus far. There’s a wikipedia article on Hiroyuki in English that has two good external links at the bottom for finding more information on Hiroyuki and the past 2ch court battles. I’ve also found that The Japan Times Online is very helpful in finding information on 2ch.net. If you put “ni channeru” into their search engine, you can get all 3 results on articles that they have reported about 2 channel in. You will have to register in order to get access to Japan Times’ news articles, but they’re in English and translated very well.
Also, this is being talked about on 4chan.org in the Imageboards section under Text Boards, if you want to look at more generalized information.