A district court in Japan has ordered two people to pay 500 million yen, or about 3.6 million dollars, in damages to motion picture companies for uploading what are known as "fast movies" without permission.

Fast movies are versions edited to show the entire stories in about 10 minutes, with subtitles and narration.

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday awarded the full amount of damages sought by 13 companies, including major film distributors Toho and Nikkatsu.

The two defendants, a man and a woman in their 20s, were convicted last year of violating the copyright law by posting the short versions without permission. They were the first in Japan to face the charges over fast movies.

The two were accused of editing 54 Japanese movies, including "Shin Godzilla," into short versions, and offered them on the video-sharing website YouTube for ad revenues.

Presiding Judge Sugiura Masaki said the movie rental fee on YouTube is at least 400 yen, or nearly 2.9 dollars. He said the plaintiffs' damage estimate of 200 yen per view is appropriate, as movies about 2 hours long were compressed into fast versions, but the contents of the original works could be grasped.

The judge said the damage would top 2 billion yen when the total number of views is considered. He awarded the full amount sought by the plaintiffs.

The ruling is said to be the first judicial decision in Japan on the damage from unauthorized fast movies.

Posting of fast movies jumped in early 2020 as people spent more time at home amid the coronavirus pandemic.