The crackdown on illegal manga and anime sharing has just reached a critical point, as Japanese authorities have managed to take down an international pirating site operating in China, and have the owners arrested and prosecuted. This is the first time that the takedown of piracy has gone global, highlighting how serious authorities are about curbing this harmful practice.
In the past few weeks, Japanese authorities have been cracking down on manga piracy. Law enforcement has been actively apprehending people who distribute copyrighted material illegally, and this has led to many leaker accounts and scanlations websites shutting down.
This effort has culminated in one of the biggest illegal anime websites, B9GOOD, being shut down. This is a major step not only because the site is used by more than 300 million people, but it also displays that, no matter the country, no one is safe from copyright infringement.
The Age Of Anime Piracy Could Be Ending
The owner and operator of the illegal anime streaming website B9GOOD was arrested and jailed for three years
According to the website of the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), the owner and operator of the illegal anime streaming website B9GOOD was arrested and jailed for three years, as well as being fined $250,000 for copyright infringement. The website was operated in Jiangsu Province, China, and this man, alongside three others, was jailed for uploading more than 45,880 anime onto their site. This is the first time that a person outside of Japan has been jailed for distributing copyrighted anime, setting an important precedent.
This arrest is the culmination of years of work by CODA in taking down the website, after the filing of a complaint against the site owners back in 2016. Although Chinese authorities did take action in closing the site, it was opened up under a different name. The site was the biggest pirate site used in Japan and has caused extensive damage to the industry and contributed to the $13 billion loss in revenue of the anime industry due to piracy.
Related
10 Best Kodansha Manga of All Time, Ranked
Kodansha has published some of the best manga of all time, including Attack on Titan and Vinland Saga, which have transcended mainstream popularity.
Manga piracy slowed down significantly with the arrest of two foreigners, on two separate occasions, who were responsible for leaking chapters and panels before the official release. This collective effort by the biggest publishers such as Sheuisha, Kodansha, and Shokagukan, among others, has been monumental in deterring others from operating such sites.
After manga piracy, illegal anime websites are also being targeted by the authorities as the war on piracy intensifies. Unfortunately, many fans still use illegal sources for anime and manga, but the recent news are still a clear message to operators of such websites around the world that the authorities will be taking legal action to stop this harmful practice that has plagued the industry for years.
