A court in Japan has sentenced 53-year-old Shinobu Yoshida, who posted a video on YouTube with the passage of the visual novel STEINS;GATE: My Darling’s Embrace. He was given two years in prison with a five-year suspended sentence.
At the trial, Yoshida pleaded guilty, and his lawyer said that the blogger’s actions were not “particularly malicious.” If Yoshida does not violate the rules of probation in five years, he will not go to prison.
Yoshida also needs to pay a fine of ¥1 million ($6.8 thousand).
Recall that Kadokawa, the company that owns the rights to STEINS;GATE, accused Yoshida of copyright infringement. In addition, she felt that videos with the gameplay of the game would reduce sales: gamers would prefer to watch the full walkthrough on YouTube and would not buy a visual novel.