The world’s largest anime piracy website has officially rebranded following a significant increase in popularity and a blocking order from the Supreme Court.
The world’s largest anime piracy website, Aniwatch, recently rebranded after its infamy grew.
The popular website “Aniwatch” changed its domain name to “HiAnime” this week. Users attempting to access Aniwatch received the message: “Aniwatch is being renamed to HiAnime. You will be redirected to the new HiAnime website after 10 seconds. Or you can also click here to visit HiAnime now.” According to Sameweb, “Aniwatch” is the #1 most visited anime piracy website worldwide with 136.2 million visitors as of January 2024. It also ranks 16th overall in the category “Online TV and Online TV”. Aniwatch did not provide an official explanation for the rebranding.
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A new report by Torrent Freak adds that the recent ‘dynamic+’ website blocking in India may have prompted this. This refers to a court-ordered directive to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to block access to a website, with the theory proving particularly likely that India is the population base. Aniwatch’s biggest users. Pressure from groups trying to shut down Aniwatch has a long history, the site was formerly the infamous zoro.to. Both Aniwatch and its predecessor include several anime websites that are on the US government’s list of most notorious piracy and counterfeit markets. Torrent Freak also speculates that the rebranding could be a temporary measure to circumvent the block, as the Aniwatch’s massive size means the rebranding wouldn’t hide it from scrutiny.
Users largely did not report significant changes to the service, with user accounts and watchlist records being transferred. However, some people have complained about HiAnime’s writing style because it resembles an 18+ anime site. Pop-up ads are also more common on the new site.
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Anime and Manga copyright infringement is still a hotly debated topic
Heated conversations about copyright infringement have continued over the past few weeks. Crunchyroll has angered a portion of the anime community following Funimation’s announcement of discontinuation of the service, which meant a price increase for certain users and the loss of digital copies bundled with paid Blu-ray discs. fee. Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Purini added that the company is doing what it can to compensate affected users for that issue. On the other hand, while many continue to describe the motive behind piracy as just a service issue, the arrest of two foreign individuals sparked major information leaks about Weekly Shonen Jump and Kodansha — received quick imitations — which doesn’t seem to do much to deter people from copyright infringement. Join the pirates.
Source: Aniwatch, Torrent Freak