A 14-year-old boy from Nogoya, Japan has been arrested recently for uploading leaked manga volumes on to the popular video streaming site YouTube. Suspected of leaking One Piece, Naruto, Major and Gintama, the boy is reported to have uploaded the illegal content from December 2009 to February 2010.

Using his Twitter account to announce the four times he uploaded the manga, it was revealed that that manga was uploaded on YouTube after the boy took pictures with a camera and made a slide show. It is still unclear how the boy obtained the manga before the scheduled release dates. An official from the One Piece and Naruto distribution company said that, “These acts of copyright infringement are truly regrettable. To protect manga culture and the rights of manga creators, we’re taking every available measure.”

This here is a very tricky situation. Sure, the boy is only fourteen, but he still knowingly uploaded illegally obtained manga online! It’s one thing to release a manga online after it has been released, but to leak something is a whole new can of worms. I’m still a little split on this.

How do you think this should be handled?

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork