Japan Trying to Handle Anime and Manga Piracy

The country’s government has cooperated with 15 leading producers and distributors of anime and manga in order to launch a huge anti-piracy campaign against 580 websites. In addition, the group is also going to launch a brand new portal directing pirates to official material being targeted by the scheme.

The Japanese government has already made some attempts to crackdown on online piracy by enforcing a new law targeted at file-sharers two years ago. Existing punishments of up to 10 years of jail time for uploaders were complemented by the punishment for those who knowingly download copyright-infringing content, carrying potential 2 years of prison time. Despite the fact that it was hoped that such measures would encourage Internet users to behave well, the problems still persist.

In result, now the Japanese government decided to take another action against digital piracy in order to preserve what it views as one of its greatest cultural exports. Indeed, anime and manga are currently consumed all over the world, and Japan sees this interest in its own culture as useful to its relationships abroad. But as it usually happens, this popularity attracts pirates, much of whom are facilitated by the unlicensed overseas portals.

Trying to remedy the situation overseas, the Japanese government would launch a massive anti-piracy campaign, which is expected to make a huge dent in anime and manga piracy. The authorities have cooperated with 15 leading producers and distributors to start contacting around 580 “overseas pirate websites” with demands that they mass-delete copyright-infringing material. The portals in question are located all over the world, but the country will make a particular focus on China.

Although it is hard to predict whether those sites are willing to comply, but if the pirate content is harder to find online, the campaign will manage to capitalize on that opportunity. A new website sponsored by the government will suggest fans to buy legal copies of the 250 affected works at a flat price of a few hundred yen.

According to the representatives of the Japanese government, they are trying to create a project allowing anime fans overseas to enjoy the legal content and without infringement worries, at the same time seeing the profits being paid to anime production companies and publishers.