Japan's Mangamura, once the largest manga piracy site, faced a historic verdict on April 18, 2024. The site had to pay a staggering 1.7 billion yen, equivalent to about 11 million USD.
This ruling came after a lawsuit by major publishing companies Shogakukan, Kadokawa and Shueisha. The Tokyo District Court issued the order on April 8, marking the largest compensation ever awarded for damages caused by a copyright infringement website, Nikkei reports.
Mangamura began operations in February 2016 and quickly gained immense popularity, with over 537 million visits at its peak. It hosted about 70,000 manga volumes and caused an estimated 320 billion yen in damages before closing in April 2018.
Manga piracy is decreasing in Japan but increasing abroad
In response to the ruling, the three publishers issued a joint statement affirming their commitment to protecting their works by all possible means against infringement.
However, Mangamura's executive expressed disappointment, saying the verdict was unfair and was considering a retrial citing financial constraints. Previously, in June 2021, he received a 3-year prison sentence.
The court found Mangamura guilty of manually uploading manga images and connecting to a third-party server hosting illegally obtained material.
Despite Mangamura's argument that it could not be held responsible for third-party copyright infringement, the court ruled against it. Another popular manga reading platform, Tachiyomi, adopted a similar modus operandi but avoided legal consequences by blocking third-party connections and halting development.
Japan's strict stance against piracy has yielded significant results, with domestic manga piracy plummeting by nearly two-thirds, from 1.019 trillion yen in 2021 to 381.8 trillion yen. billion yen by 2023. However, piracy remains a growing concern beyond Japan's borders.
According to Nikkei, overseas video and publishing piracy increased fivefold from 2021 to 2022. The challenges of prosecuting piracy operators are exacerbated by the possibility of hides the location of piracy servers, as demonstrated when Aniwatch, the world's largest anime piracy site, quickly relocated following an Indian block.
As Japan sees piracy decline, the country's anti-piracy group, CODA, continues its efforts to work with counterparts in the US to combat piracy globally.
The recent contract extension with the Motion Picture Association (MPA) aims to develop new strategies to tackle online piracy worldwide and strengthen copyright protection initiatives. general rights.