Author: Shintaro Takasaki, Attorney at Law

1. Introduction

On April 21, 2021, a law was passed that revises a part of the Act on the Limitation of Liability for Damages of Specified Telecommunications Service Providers and the Right to Demand Disclosure of Identification Information of the Senders (popular name, Provider Liability Limitation Act).

The revised law will go into effect from October 1, 2022, but it will be possible to use the procedures after revision even for an infringement of rights arising prior to the enactment of the revised law.

2. System for order for disclosure of information regarding sender

By the revision, a system has been established whereby an order for disclosure of sender information can be requested as follows.
A person whose rights have been infringed on the internet will first (i) take the contents provider as the other party and request to the court an order for disclosure of the IP address, etc.. When the order to provide is issued, the contents provider will provide the name of the access provider. Next, (ii) the person will take the access provider as the other party and make a request to the court for an order to disclose the address and name of the anonymous sender and not delete the communication log. By this request, if an order for disclosure is issued to the access provider by the court, and the information such as IP address etc. is provided, the access provider will disclose the address and name of the anonymous sender based on such information.

By this disclosure of the address and name, a person whose rights have been infringed can take measures under the civil code for compensation for damages or under the criminal code, etc.. Since it is usual for a telecom operator or access provider to delete the communication log after a period of time, the above request for an order to not delete will function to avoid deletion of the communication information during the time when the person is trying to ascertain the anonymous sender.

Contrary to procedures under present law, the above request to the contents provider and access provider are expected to be merged and judged by the same court so under the revised law we can expect a more rapid and smooth disclosure of sender information and designation of the anonymous sender.

3. In conclusion

Our office can provide consistent handling from designation of the sender and the compensation damages claim or criminal claim, etc., for individuals and entities, for damage to reputation, slander, infringement of privacy, and infringement of copyright, etc., on the internet.