Man arrested for selling pirated Godzilla DVDs that he colorized using AI

A man has been arrested for violating copyright laws after selling pirated DVDs of the 1954 film Godzilla, which he colorized using artificial intelligence (AI).

A 66-year-old Japanese man, Ippei Miyamoto, was arrested by Osaka Prefectural Police after allegedly selling pirated versions of the 1954 black and white movie Godzilla.

Despite his age, Miyamoto colorized the classic using AI, admitting that he “did the work of colorizing it and selling it all by myself using a computer,” the translated report by Asahi reveals.

The man was supposedly selling illegally copied versions of Godzilla to a man in Tokyo through a flea market website back in November 2024, the report reads.

While the original movie is in black and white, Miyamoto utilized an unnamed but popular tool that uses AI to colorize it.

Miyamoto allegedly ran a website that sold various other black-and-white films that had been converted into colorized versions of old classics.

He also sold DVDs on various flea market websites, stating that they were legal. These DVDs would go for 3,000 to 30,000 yen each ($20 to $200 per DVD).

The 66-year-old supposedly made roughly 1.7 million yen (about $12,000) between January and May 2025, the Japanese outlet reported.