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Infamous Winny File-Sharing Software Inspires Live-Action Film in 2023
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Two decades after it shook the world, the infamous file-sharing software Winny is inspiring a live-action film in 2023. Billed as the Japanese counterpart for The Social Network, the Winny saga is a remarkable piece of Japanese internet history due to the developer's involvement in a high-profile copyright infringement court case.
The film will star Masahiro Higashide (Death Note Light up the NEW world's Tsukuru Mishima, Crows Explode's Kazeo Kaburagi) as Winny developer Isamu Kaneko, and Takahiro Miura (live-action Attack on Titan's Jean, live-action Space Battleship Yamato's Furuya) as Kaneko's lawyer Toshimitsu Dan.
Yusaku Matsumoto (Kami-sama no Ekohiiki, Made in Japan) is writing and directing the film. KDDI and Nakachika are distributing it.
Producer Satoshi Furuhashi launched a crowdfunding campaign in February 2018 to create a film documenting the rise and fall of Winny. The campaign earned over eight times its 100,000 yen (about US$919 at the time) goal.
According to Furuhashi, the film is a Japanese counterpart for The Social Network directed by David Fincher in 2010, which told the story of Facebook's creation. The film will depict how Winny's technology pioneered current internet trends like Bitcoin and NFTs, and show how Japan's legal system at the time impeded technological innovation.
The Winny peer-to-peer file-sharing software was released in 2002 by a then anonymous computer engineering research assistant known as "47-shi" ("Mr. 47"). The software promised anonymity for its users, but the High-Tech Crime Task Force found flaws in its integrated forum feature. After two users were arrested for sharing copyrighted material using Winny in 2003, the developer was identified as Isamu Kaneko, a former University of Tokyo researcher. He was arrested in 2004. He was convicted and sentenced with a 1.5-million-yen (about US$12,000) fine in 2006. During Kaneko's arrest and trial, another anonymous developer created a successor application called Share that uses Winny's file-sharing network. Since security researchers have also found flaws in Share in 2006, other successor applications are being developed.
Kaneko eventually won a 2009 appeal, and the Osaka High Court overturned his conviction. Osaka High Court Chief Judge Masazo Ogura said that Kaneko did not encourage people to use Winny for illegally distributing copyrighted material. Kaneko's defense had argued that technological development would be hampered if programmers were held responsible for the actions of their software's users. His legal defense was supported by donations.
Kaneko passed away in 2013 at the age of 42. At the time of his passing, Kaneko was working as the founder and chief innovation officer of the content distribution service Skeed, as well as a special instructor at the University of Tokyo's Information Technology Center.
Source: Winny film's website via Hachima Kikо̄
