<A HREF="http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=59826">A student who had allegedly spread a computer virus was convicted Friday</A> of copyright infringement charges in a case that has highlighted the lack of laws in Japan to police malicious programs in cyberspace. Masato Nakatsuji, 24, a graduate student at Osaka Electro-Communication University, was suspected of spreading a virus by embedding it in an image from a Japanese animation film that he illegally copied and distributed over the Internet.

The virus he allegedly used, the "Harada virus," is one of Japan's "Big Three" viruses, and Nakatsuji's arrest, in January, was the first in Japan involving the making or spreading of viruses. Nakatsuji was found guilty in Kyoto District Court Friday and sentenced on the same day to two years in prison, suspended for three years, said a court official who requested anonymity because he was speaking for the court.