In a landmark ruling that has entertainment writers nervously checking their word counts, the Tokyo District Court has determined that posting detailed spoilers can be a crime. Last Thursday, the court found 39-year-old Wataru Takeuchi guilty of copyright infringement for administering a website that published lengthy, spoiler-heavy descriptions of popular films and series.
Two specific articles - one about Godzilla Minus One and another about the Overlord anime adaptation - prompted lawsuits from Toho (owner of the Godzilla IP) and Kadokawa Shoten (the publisher behind Overlord). The lawsuits were filed jointly through the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), which argued that the site's posts, featuring large chunks of transcribed dialogue and numerous images, went far beyond fair use. CODA claimed these detailed summaries were essentially adaptations that could cause "significant damage to rights holders" by discouraging potential customers from paying for the actual content.
A particularly damning point in the case was the site's monetization. Though Takeuchi reportedly did not write the infringing posts himself, his website ran ads, allowing him to rake in 38 million Yen ($239,254.04) from ad sales in 2023. For his role, Takeuchi has been sentenced to one year and six months in prison and ordered to pay a 1 million yen ($6,296.16) fine.
This decision tackles the thorny reality of modern entertainment coverage, where sites like Takeuchi's operate in a landscape desperate for clicks and engagement. From brazen spoiler posts to the recent online leak of Paramount's forthcoming The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender, the appetite for consuming leaks often rivals the appetite for the art itself. CODA has stated it plans to "strive for the proper protection of copyrights and implement effective measures against similar websites," sending a clear message that detailed spoiler posts can now come with very real, and very expensive, consequences.