1.2°C Not observed 
TOKYO - A Japanese high court acquitted the developer of a free file-sharing software on Thursday in a high profile case over copyright law, a court official said.
The high court reversed a 2006 ruling by a lower court that imposed a fine of 1.5 million yen ($17,000) on Isamu Kaneko, 39, said the court official, who declined to be named, citing department policy.
"Today's ruling helps not only myself but also other computer engineers in pursuing the development of computer technology," Kaneko told at a news conference at the court in Osaka, western Japan.
Kaneko's program, Winny, allows users to trade files without revealing their Internet Protocol addresses - the online equivalent of a phone number. Digital content providers say the software infringes on their copyright by giving users access to their material for free.
Kaneko, a former instructor at the prestigious University of Tokyo, was arrested in 2004. He became the first file-sharing software developer arrested in Japan.
He was accused of helping two users disseminate copyrighted material on the Internet with Winny, which can be accessed from his home page.
In the 2006 ruling, a judge said Winny assisted in the perpetration of crimes. Violating copyright laws in Japan can bring up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of 3 million yen.
But Presiding Judge Masazo Ogura rejected the initial verdict, saying it "cannot be said that the defendant published the software to encourage copyright infringement," according to Kyodo News agency.
Around 200,000 users, mostly in Japan, are believed to use Winny daily, according to the Association of Copyright for Computer Software, a Tokyo-based industry group for over 220 computer software makers.
The association voiced "regret" over the decision. "It is crystal clear that allowing people to use this network further encourages copyright violation," the association said in a statement.
The reversal runs counter to recent rulings elsewhere. There has been a spate of cases in the U.S. in which people who run file-sharing sites or illegally share content have been ordered to pay fines. In addition, several members of a music piracy group, Apocalypse Production Crew, have been convicted for copyright infringement. Most recently, a man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his involvement with the group.
In Sweden, four men connected to The Pirate Bay, one of the world's largest file-sharing venues, were sentenced in June to one-year prison terms for abetting violations of copyright law. They were also ordered to pay a fine of 30 million kronor ($3.9 million).
