Japan man arrested for selling AI-generated color Godzilla DVDs

A 66-year-old Japanese man has been arrested for copyright infringement after selling color versions of the 1954 black-and-white Godzilla that he created himself using artificial intelligence. He earned about 12,000 $ over the course of a few months.

Osaka prefectural police have arrested Ippei Miyamoto, who single-handedly digitized and colorized a classic Japanese film using unspecified but popular AI technology. The man then sold the copies through online flea markets, claiming they were legal.

• The price per disc ranged from 3,000 to 30,000 yen (\$20–200), and the total profit, according to media reports, amounted to about 1.7 million yen (\~\$12,000) for the period from January to May 2025. In addition to “Godzilla”, Miyamoto allegedly distributed color versions of other classic films through his own website.

The original 1954 “Godzilla” is a landmark film of Japanese cinema, the rights to which belong to Embassy Pictures and other rights holders. Despite his venerable age and the lack of an industrial studio, Miyamoto managed to use artificial intelligence to create an illegal commercial product. This is one of the first documented examples of an AI tool becoming a central link in a copyright infringement case.

This incident is the first signal of the challenges that new AI tools pose for copyright. Even old films can be transformed into new “products” with commercial potential. While the legislation in many countries has not yet been adapted to such cases, such cases will only increase – both in Japan and around the world.