The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered the former owner of pirated Japanese manga website Mangamura to pay Japanese publishers Shogakukan, Shueisha and Kadokawa 1.7 billion yen (about $11.0 million). . The publishers said it was the largest amount ever awarded by a judge in connection with damages in a copyright infringement case in Japan.
The companies sued Mangamura in July 2022 for 1.9 billion yen. The figure represents the estimated loss to the company due to copyright infringement of 441 volumes from 17 manga.
The manga mentioned in the lawsuit include One Piece, Kingdom, YAWARA!, Dorohedoro, Overlord, Sgt. Frog, Grandson of the Wise, Rise of the Shield Hero, Trinity Seven, Hinamatsuri, Erased, Mushoku Tensei, Golden Rough, Kanojo wa Uso o Ai Shisugiteru, Karakuri Circus, Kengan Ashura and Tasogare Ryūseigun.
The publishers argued that the site's alleged owner, Romi Hoshino, aka Zakay Romi, earned advertising revenue from the site. Romi argued that he did not run the website but handled the management and development of the system.
The Fukuoka District Court issued a guilty verdict in June 2021 against Hoshinoon on charges of copyright infringement and concealment of criminal proceeds. Hoshino, 29 years old at the time, was sentenced to 3 years in prison, fined 10 million yen (about 91,100 USD at the time) and fined an additional 62 million yen (about 565,000 USD at the time). The latter is based on the 62 million yen in revenue that Hoshino earned from the website and deposited into a foreign bank account.
Nikkei reported on Thursday that after Hoshino was released from prison after serving his sentence, in 2023 he asked the Fukuoka District Court to review the case, maintaining his innocence.
The Mangamura site launched in 2016. Japanese authorities revealed in May 2018 that they were actively investigating Mangamura after Kodansha and other publishers filed criminal complaints with police departments over the summer until fall 2017.
The Japanese government officially asked internet service providers in Japan to block access to three pirated manga websites including Mangamura in April 2018. Mangamura then became inaccessible on April 17. April 2018. However, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on the same day that the website was shut down due to blocking the website from Internet service providers. According to the newspaper's sources from a service provider, this action could not have been performed by anyone other than the site's administrator.
Hoshino was residing in the Philippines in 2019 and the Philippine Immigration Bureau took him into custody in July of that year and extradited him to Japan in September of the same year. Police also arrested another individual believed to be linked to Mangamura named Wataru Adachi in August 2019, as well as two other individuals: a 26-year-old male named Kōta Fujisaki and a 24-year-old female named Shiho Itō , both are said to have been arrested. Hoshino's friend. Fujisaki pleaded guilty, while Itō pleaded innocent during his trial in September 2019.
Source: Nikkei via My Gaming News Flash
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