Liberal Japan

“It’s contrary to society’s common sense to exchange information about how to commit suicide and crime through Web sites. When a situation involves a threat to human lives, it is necessary, in the sense of sending out a warning signal, to make people responsible for sites they set up, including the possibility of bringing criminal charges against them. Internet providers and search engine operators could be asked to make a much greater effort to delete harmful sites,” said lawyer Hisamichi Okamura, an expert in Internet problems. (Yomiuri)

If Internet providers are required to have a staff large enough to read every single line that is posted at one of the sites they host, they’d go bankrupt.

If someone discovers an Internet site promoting (for profit or otherwise) the harming of other humans beings, and if the site is serious in intent, there should be a legal method for shutting down the site. But the Internet provider should not be liable just because the site was hosted.

In the current situation, you have this utter creep who was offering to both kill people and assist others in suicide. Interestingly, his business model was based on getting cheap, prescription medicine and reselling it. This is often done in Japan and America with drugs such as Ritalin.

The law should be based on the concept of protecting individuals from other people, not themselves. If this had been the case, situations are much less likely to arise.