The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered a man and woman to pay 500 million yen ($3.6 million) in damages to 13 major film production companies for uploading minutes-long edited version of their films known as "fast movies" on video-sharing sites without permission.

It was the first court decision in Japan on the amount of damages to be awarded for the unauthorized uploading of such types of film. The defendants, both in their 20s, were already convicted of violating copyright law in November, and did not contest the legality of their actions in the civil case.

The plaintiffs, including Toho Co., Shochiku Co., and Toei Co. were awarded the full amount they had demanded.

==Kyodo

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