Photo/Illutration A banner on the Content Overseas Distribution Association’s website calls for the eradication of piracy. (Captured from the website)

Chinese authorities have fined the former operator of Manga Bank, which was one of the largest pirated Japanese manga websites in the world, for illegally providing the content.

Major Japanese publisher Kadokawa Corp. made the announcement on July 14 alongside other groups, including the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), an anti-piracy organization, which also promotes the global distribution of Japanese manga, music and games.

This is believed to be the first time that authorities overseas have penalized someone for running a website that pirates manga in Japanese, according to the CODA.

A man who lives in the Chinese city of Chongqing ran several manga sites, including Manga Bank, that distributed pirated versions of the works without the copyright owners’ permission, according to the CODA.

Chinese authorities on June 15 ordered him to pay about 600,000 yen ($4,320) in fines for violating a local ordinance, according to CODA.

Manga Bank appeared on the internet in 2019 but was shut down in 2021. The Authorized Books of Japan (ABJ), an anti-piracy body, estimates that the pirate site cost the Japanese manga industry some 208.2 billion yen from November 2019 to October 2021.

Scores of overseas pirate manga sites have popped up over the past few years, even after Mangamura, one of Japan’s largest manga piracy websites, was shut down in 2018.

The publishing industry lost an estimated 1 trillion yen in 2021 from pirate manga sites, according to the ABJ.

Related News