(BREAKING NEWS) Unedited workprints of JAV titles leaked en masse! Industry associates responds

[Writer's Note:- Article is an interpretation of an earlier published Japanese article with additional comments by me. The source is linked at the end of the article.]

After clicking on the link and gaining access to the site, you can see photos of bewitching women and their sensual, tempting bodies in various states of undress on a black background. Which might be nothing unusual except for one single phrase:- [HD uncensored] 

This is what drives the industry into its current State of Emergency.

Everything can be traced back to the start of this year back in January when there seemed to be a bit of unrest throughout the various agencies of the actresses.

"Soft On Demand (SOD) had informed me that a computer hacker had broken into their office and certain confidential materials might have been stolen" according to one executive from an agency.

It goes without saying that SOD is currently one of the pillars of the industry with an annual turnover of over 9 billion yen (approximately $80 million USD).

"My fellow colleagues in the field had some concerns about what was announced since that time. You can't imagine our shock when we saw rows and rows of unedited workprints of previously released titles posted on that Chinese website in the middle of October" said the same executive.

An initial search at the site confirms some leaked workprints of around 120 titles. SOD's releases take the lion share of about 50 of them, while the rest consisted of Maxing's and Prestige's.

A comment by an Industry insider is as follows.

"Sure there was on and off incidents in the past where certain directors and crews who got laid off or sacked were caught leaking and selling unedited master copies of titles in the open market. But this is unprecedented"

[Writer's note:-So, SOD's stand on the workprints leak as being the work of a computer hacker. But I have my doubts as to how much data can a lone hacker siphon off before he is noticed by a competent network security personnel. We are talking about possibly terabytes of uncompressed footage here.]

So just why had the workprints turn up at a mainland Chinese site, of all places? JAV journalist Kochi Katsutoshi express his opinion.

"JAV actresses had managed to find international fame in the Chinese circles. And when they are paid to turn up at overseas events, they usually made the local news. Take Yui Hatano as an example, she managed to land herself an endorsement for a beverage in Taiwan".

The posting of the aforementioned site had workprints version titles of many popular talents listed up for sales, ranging from USD50 to USD100 per download after conversion.

"Those girls can move around 3000 prints of a title on a good month, so I can understand how valuable an unedited workprint of a title can be for overseas fans. By pricing one of those at an average of USD75, tally up with about 120 titles and mixing up at 3000 copies, you are looking at possible sales of some 3 billion yen." said the same insider from before.

Faced with such historical first, there are currently unverified rumors making rounds in the industry as to how much damage had been done.

"Some says that first drafts of scripts that only a selected few had access to have gone missing and is just waiting to turn up somewhere on the Internet, I even heard that footages of filming preparations like the mixing of artificial semen are included in the leaks, driving further rumors that some higher-up in the studio are collaborators", as expressed by a studio executive.

Just how possible is this theory of the leak originating from an insider with special access privileges?

"Well, SOD had recently established a subsidiary overseas in the business district of Bangkok, Thailand where they specialized in the application of mosaics. To prevent theft of any workprints submitted to them, they employed an all-female crew there. At least this is what I heard." is what the same executive reply when quizzed.

[Writer's note:- Rumors say SOD had recently established an in-house ethics company and in turn they have switched the application of the mosaic directly under their fold, but that overseas office's comment is new to me.....]

So, with everything now out in the wild, how much can be done to mitigate the impact? We hereby quote the answer given by IT reporter Shuji Shinohara:

"We can submit evidence that those videos are obtained through dubious means to the operators of the servers in an attempt to get them to take everything offline. Though it's likely the operators will ignore such requests outright. Thus we will have to take legal measures with both the Japanese courts and the local courts on the operator's side. Here's where things will get complicated with the various interpretations of the law and fizzled out eventually due to financial issues."

Now, what about the impact on the performers? We reach out to former JAV Actress Yuri Komuro who is now an activist in reintegrating retired talents back into society at large, allowing them to be reemployed into normal jobs:

"Once it's on the Internet, it will remain there like a form of a digital tattoo. Like a tattoo, traces of the film will remain no matter how much you try to scrub it off, and it will affect the girl's personal life after she retires. By watching one of those releases, you are not contributing sales to the studio and helping out with the payment to either the agency or the girl. So don't you dare!"

When we elaborate on the exact nature of the leak workprints, Komuro gets even more furious and express her anger at how things had turned out:

"I will not be surprised if some of the girls are starting to get suspicious that the studio lots orchestrated things on purposes to improve their bottom line. The girls will lawyer up if they have any evidence. But there are none, so the studios have grounds to play victim and muddy the waters. There will be a few that will retire due to the shock this incident brings and when word gets out, you will not have new recruits to replace them. There's no telling how far thing will go."

[Writer's note :- To clarify what exactly is Komuro so angry about. If the unedited workprints meant for internal circulations manage to get out into the open, there's no telling what could happen to the other confidential documents the studio is holding pertaining to the contracted talents.]

We now present the official respond directly by a spokesperson from SOD :- "It's unfortunate that things turn out the way they do and we are treating this case very seriously. We are doing the best we can to issue takedowns and limit the liabilities we have suffered so far."

Like it or not, JAV is a part of modern Japan's culture and it's unforgivable that some have exploited it illicitly for their gain.

Source: AV史上最大の無修正流出　30億稼ぐ中国の悪い奴ら