A female victim makes an angry accusation! My video was sold on a major adult site without my knowledge.

Even at this very moment, I can still see the indecent images of my past on the screen. At one point I wondered if I had no choice but to change my stage name, but I didn’t want to cry myself to sleep, so I consulted a lawyer.

Miyuki Aruga, 50, a stripper, revealed her painful feelings.

Nowadays, as long as you have a smartphone, you can watch adult videos instantly. On the other hand, it is extremely difficult for performers to erase images that have been posted on the Internet. In such an environment, Ms. Aruga claims that a pornographic film in which she once appeared was sold on the Internet without her consent.

Aruga said, “It was almost 30 years ago that I shot the footage. At the time, I was working as a freelance stripper. At the time, an acquaintance asked me if I would like to be in a Nikkatsu porno film, and I agreed, partly out of interest. The shoot lasted three days, and the guarantee was 450,000 yen if you include the recording fee.

Over the next year, she appeared in two pornographic films. These three films starred Ms. Aruga.

Since they were pornographic films, of course they included nude appearances and indecent scenes such as rubbing one’s own breasts.

Before the filming, Ms. Aruga confirmed that the contract stipulated that the film would be shown only in certain movie theaters. However, over the course of more than ten years, this promise was reneged upon.

I didn’t know the film was available for sale until about 15 years ago, when I retired as a stripper. To be honest, I had forgotten that the films existed. With the spread of the Internet, I did an ego search using my name and noticed that the films I appeared in were being sold as DVDs on major adult websites and were also being distributed as video clips for a fee.

He tried to contact people involved in the film industry at the time, but their contact information had already changed, and the production office was closed. There was nothing we could do.

I had no choice but to feel bad that I had been in the film even once,” he said. I gradually lost the will to resist, and I tried to erase it from my memory.

The turning point in her decision to file the lawsuit was the restart of her career as a stripper.

I wanted to use my old stage name because I was going to resume my activities,” she said. But if you searched the Internet, you would find pornographic movies. Stripping is an art form, and it is different from pornography. I could have changed my name, but I didn’t want to cry myself to sleep, so in March of this year, after consulting with a lawyer, I decided to sue the distributor.

Attorney Hitomo Morohashi, who is representing the company, explains the civil lawsuit as follows.

We are planning to file a lawsuit against the company that provides the video distribution service. There are two main contents. The first is an injunction against the video. The second is a claim for damages for violation of portrait rights and publicity rights. The right of publicity is the right not to have one’s likeness exposed unnecessarily. She is also an artist, a stripper, and we believe that her economic value as an artist has been damaged by the unauthorized release of the indecent images, in other words, her right of publicity has been infringed. We intend to file a claim for damages on the grounds of these two infringements.”

When FRIDAY asked the site’s operator about its views on the circumstances surrounding the sale and paid distribution of the DVDs, it received the following response.

The company replied, “The products we sell on our site are sold under contract with the businesses that hold the rights to the works, but we are not involved in any contracts with the performers. Therefore, we do not confirm the existence or non-existence of permission. We would be happy if you could resolve this issue through direct dialogue with the entity that holds the rights.”

Mr. Aruga’s decision to file the lawsuit is not just about him.

Although the industry is changing with the new AV law, there must be people like me who have been hurt by the uploading of old works on the Internet. I want people to know that they can ask for the removal of their works without giving up and saying, ‘It’s just an old story, so it can’t be helped.

Will this be a new step forward for the digital society?

From theMay10 and 17, 2024 issue of FRIDAY