West Japan man arrested for alleged sale of porn videos with pixelated images altered by AI

This combination of images provided by Kyoto Prefectural Police shows the original, above, one that is partially pixelated, lower left, and one tampered with using TecoGAN artificial intelligence to make it appear almost non-pixelated at all.

KYOTO -- A man has been arrested for posting and selling pornographic videos online with the pixelated images processed using artificial intelligence (AI) to make it appear that the blurred-out sections have been removed.

Kyoto Prefectural Police arrested self-employed suspect Masayuki Nakamoto, 43, from the west Japan city of Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture, on Oct. 18 on suspicion of violating the Copyright Act and displaying obscene electromagnetic record media. It is believed to be Japan's first arrest for such a case.

Nakamoto specifically stands accused of violating a Tokyo video production company's copyright on Jan. 9 by processing a pornographic video to make it look like the pixelated parts were removed. He is also accused of creating obscene images from the video and uploading them to his own website, thereby making it visible to an unspecified, large online audience. He has reportedly admitted to the allegations against him.

According to the prefectural police, Nakamoto began the website in November 2020. Using AI model "TecoGAN" to increase the resolution of pixelated images, he processed and sold at the request of customers videos made to appear almost unaltered. He apparently sold 2,561 video files for a total of some 11 million yen (about $96,000). The scheme was found in a prefectural police cyber patrol.

Nakamoto was also selling videos on other websites, and the prefectural police intend to investigate him for further crimes.