Japan cracks down on illegal downloading - some clarification

As has been commented on various news sites such as Kotaku and Wired, come this October downloading illegal copies of videos and music will now be a real crime, and the law has real teeth as well: people found guilty could face up to a ¥2,000,000 fine or 2 years in jail. Ouch.

This has led some to claim that it will make sites like YouTube and Nico Nico Douga suddenly very very dangerous to visit, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Update: Here's a good article (in Japanese) at NHK that also states streaming content won't be under the purvey of the law. NHK News Web

Update 2: The Ministry of Cultural Affairs seems to be taking the stance that temporary files that your computer saves when viewing streaming content online at sites like YouTube won't be considered a "copy" of the file, so you'll be fine.

Update 3: As I've posted on my blog elsewhere, it is now pretty much confirmed that the law will not make YouTube illegal. Here's an article at the Japan Times that very clearly outlines what the law will in fact do.

Some highlights to point out:

• The law doesn't make viewing videos on streaming sites illegal, but if you use a program to save stuff from sites like YouTube that's another story. So just watch YouTube videos online and you're fine.
• The law also does not make ripping CDs illegal. It's still OK to rent CDs to rip for personal use, just as it's OK to give a friend or family member an mp3 file you've saved.
• The law does make it basically completely illegal to rip the contents of a DVD since most are copy-protected, even if you are doing it to save a copy for yourself. That's pretty shitty IMO.
• The law very specifically does not have anything about blocking websites. I've heard a few people saying it will and this is completely false.

Thanks for coming back everyone. I hope this clears things up a bit.