Miyagi Prefectural Police on Wednesday arrested three people for allegedly posting so-called fast movies, or illegally edited short version of copyrighted films, on YouTube.

The prefectural police department suspects that the three, including Kenya Takase, a 25-year-old man from Sapporo, violated the copyright law.

Two others arrested are Nana Shimoda, 25, who lives with Takase in Sapporo, and Takayuki Suga, 42, from Tokyo.

This is the first arrest in Japan for the online posting of fast movies, according to the police. Fast movies, edited without permission of copyright holders, are each about 10 minutes long and give brief explanations about the stories.

The three are suspected of creating shortened versions of five movies whose copyrights are held by film distribution companies and others and posting the fast movies on YouTube without their permission between June 7, 2020, and July 21 the same year, according to police.

The police suspect that the trio posted more than 100 fast movies online.