According to the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), the amount of annual damage caused by online piracy of Japanese manga, anime, games, etc. has reached two trillion JPY. This is a five times increase from the 2019 survey, revealing the reality of rapidly expanding damages.
In recent years, “pirate sites” that publish anime and manga on the Internet without permission have accelerated the relocation of their bases from Japan to overseas. The number of detected pirate sites by local authorities in China and Brazil has continued to grow this year.
The increase in damage has been triggered by several factors; improving the communication environment of smartphones, an increase in the number of younger age users, and increasing content consumption in stay-at-home periods during the COVID-19 pandemic. CODA has been strengthening its countermeasures to avoid the further spreading of damages.*1
On May 22, 2023, 13DL, a malicious piracy site, which had the largest access among the reached sites for Japanese publications, was closed. Requested by publishers, CODA has preserved evidence of the illegal uploading of infringing material with a lawyer, and sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice of removal request to the servers in the US. In addition, CODA has filed a request with the U.S. court of Appeals for disclosure of identification information of the sender. On May 12, the U.S. court issued a disclosure order. As a result, the posting of infringing material on the site ceased and the piracy site was shut down.*2
*1: Project commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry/ Piracy Damage Report for FY2022: CODA/news
Report (Only Japanese ver.)：CODA/research_report
*2: Downloadable manga reach site for Japanese closed. : CODA/news