Under the tide of the AI era, many new ways of making profits have emerged. According to Japanese media reports, a Japanese man was arrested for colorizing a classic black-and-white movie into DVDs and selling them for profit. He was sentenced to one and a half years in prison with a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of 500,000 yen. This is also the first case in Japan of a non-adult being convicted of AI copyright infringement.
· CODA, the overseas circulation promotion agency of Japanese creative works, recently announced the latest case. In June 2025, a man was arrested by the Osaka police. The man restored a number of classic Japanese black and white old movies to color through AI, and then made them into DVDs for sale for profit. The Osaka District Court pronounced the verdict on January 28.
