On June 15, 2022, the Chongqing Municipal Cultural Market Law Enforcement General Administration in China issued an administrative penalty of confiscation of criminal proceeds of 16,409.52 yuan (approximately 330,000 yen) and a fine of 30,000 yuan (approximately 600,000 yen) against a man living in Chongqing who operated several pirate sites, including the manga pirate site “Manga BANK” and distributed manga works without the right holder’s permission, in violation of the Ordinance on the Protection of Information Network Transmission Rights. This was announced on the website of the Wanzhou District People’s Government, Chongqing on June 21 [1].
This is the first time a person operating a manga pirate site for the Japanese market has been punished overseas.
“Manga BANK” is a pirate site where Japanese manga works can be read in streaming format. According to estimates by ABJ, the total number of accesses during the period of operation (November 2019 to October 2021) reached 993.7 million, and the amount of free readings value was equivalent to 208.2 billion yen in terms of the comics sales price.
Four publishing companies, KADOKAWA, KODANSHA, SHUEISHA, and SHOGAKUKAN, obtained a series of disclosure orders in U.S. courts against overseas services such as the server companies used by “Manga Bank.” The disclosed information was carefully examined and analyzed with the advice of the Fukuoka Prefectural Police, who investigated the “Mangamura” case. Through multiple information sources, including filing disclosure petitions with U.S. news agencies revealed by such examination and analysis, we discovered that the operator resides in Chongqing, China. Based on this information, the four publishers requested the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), with an office [2] in China, to take action.
“Manga Bank” and related sites are geo-blocked, so images cannot be viewed from China. Therefore, the sites could not be accessed from China, and there was no evidence of infringement. However, CODA filed a petition for administrative punishment with the Chinese authorities, based on a petition outlining the extensive damage in Japan, the importance of punitiveness and exposure, as well as various information provisions. As a result, the petition was accepted.
The main focus of the case was whether or not the case constituted an “infringement of the public interest in China,” which is an essential requirement for administrative penalties in China. The case is a milestone in the history of CODA’s administrative petitions, as it is the first case in which the case was accepted and resulted in a punishment. In addition, according to the opinion of the local law firm, a fine of 30,000 yuan is a heavy penalty for an individual.
However, since the punishment is considered light compared to the amount of damage, the four publishers and CODA will work to gather information to clarify the full extent of this infringement and will also consider means of recovering the damages suffered by the publishers.
The free reading of manga pirate sites was estimated to be approximately 1,001.9 billion yen in 2021. However, thanks to the efforts of publishers and others, very large sites such as those related to “Manga Bank” have been completely shut down, and as of May 2022, the amount of damage has decreased compared to previous years. However, several pirate sites continue to be opened and closed with different domains and names. The situation is still unpredictable, as access from Japan to these sites has been concentrated on several occasions.
Publishers, ABJ, and CODA are running campaigns such as “STOP! PIRACY” to encourage users not to upload illegally. They also encourage users not to access pirate sites.
Pirate site operators earn excessive profits in the form of advertising revenue by uploading manga without permission and generating huge amounts of traffic. In other words, if there are no viewers, there is no point in operating a pirate site. In order for manga artists and creators to continue to create new and wonderful works of art, we ask for your understanding and cooperation in not accessing pirate sites.
[1] June 21, Wanzhou District People’s Government, Chongqing
http://www.wz.gov.cn/bmjz_89642/bm/whhlyfzwyh/zwgk_94832/fdzdgknr_94834/xzcfqz/bljg_22/202206/t20220621_10835886.html
[2] Under the guidance of the National Copyright Administration, the business activities registered with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau include (1) copyright certification services for Japanese content, (2) copyright protection for CODA member companies, (3) research and publicity for copyright law, and (4) exchange in the field of copyright with China.