Major publishers feel some success in eradicating pirated sites; new problems on TikTok are rapidly increasing…willing to solve them

On the 18th, three companies, KADOKAWA, Shueisha, and Shogakukan, which are members of the Computer Software Copyright Society (ACCS), held a press briefing in Tokyo regarding the civil lawsuit ruling regarding “Mangamura.” On the same day, the Tokyo District Court handed down a judgment ordering those involved in the operation of “Mangamura” to pay 1,736,642,277 yen in damages, in response to efforts to eradicate domestic pirated sites. He expressed a certain feeling about this.

On July 28, 2022, the three companies jointly filed a lawsuit against the operator of Mangamura, a site that pirates published content, seeking damages totaling 1,960,2532 yen (17 works). Was.

ACCS member companies are jointly responding to the criminal case regarding Mangamura, considering it to be the most important issue that the entire publishing industry should address. From July to September 2019, four A person was arrested by six prefectural police joint investigation headquarters between November 2019 and June 2021, and his conviction was finalized at the Fukuoka District Court. After the criminal investigation, “Mangamura” was shut down, causing a social alarm.

“Mangamura” publishes about 8,200 titles (equivalent to about 73,000 volumes) of all kinds of published content, including not only manga comics and manga magazines, but also general magazines, photo books, literary works, etc. At its peak, monthly access reached 100 million. It is estimated that the illegal publication will lead to a huge amount of damage being read for free, and the damage has not been recovered.

While taking into account the progress of the criminal trial, the three companies are also proceeding with concrete consideration of procedures for claiming compensation for damages, and are seeking a total of 1,929,602,532 yen, which is part of the damage estimated to have been sustained by Mangamura. A joint lawsuit was filed seeking payment of damages. And on this day, the verdict was handed down.

The three plaintiff companies made a joint comment at the press conference, saying, “It would be inappropriate for the authors to not only seek criminal punishment but also seek civil liability for Mangamura, which was the largest and symbolic pirate site at the time.” “The three plaintiffs jointly filed the lawsuit because it is the responsibility of publishers to create an environment where they can create with all their heart and to take care of the works that have been created with all their heart and soul.”

“The enormous damage caused to the published content by Mangamura is still deep, and it is impossible to recover all of it, but in this judgment the claims of the three plaintiffs are accepted, and only the 17 works of the three plaintiffs are affected. We believe that it is appropriate that the damages were determined to be over 1.7 billion yen.”

“The three plaintiffs filed this lawsuit in hopes of greatly deterring rights infringements through pirated sites, but this lawsuit has once again served as an opportunity to widely raise the issue of pirated sites. “We will continue to take all possible measures against infringement in order to protect our works, including exercising similar rights in countries overseas where serious damage has occurred.”

ACCS also stated, “We believe that the finding that civil liability arises for the operation of pirated sites is a natural judgment from the perspective of preventing similar crimes. You can’t get it.

The most important thing is to have fun through appropriate sites and apps, and once again we strongly urge people not to access or use pirated sites. We will continue to promote activities that will lead to the prevention of infringement by supporting members in exercising their rights and spreading the word about copyright.”

In response to this ruling, publishers have stated that new problems have arisen in their efforts to eradicate domestic piracy sites, saying, “There are still problems with spoiler sites and SNS uploads…” I believe this has been effective, as pirated sites have disappeared.However, the situation with pirated sites for overseas readers remains dire.It is the publisher’s responsibility to continue to respond to this problem. I think so,” he said emphatically.

It should be noted that illegal uploads are not limited to pirated sites, but include Facebook, YouTube, etc., and TikTok has been increasing recently.

“There are people, especially young people, who watch it without feeling guilty.” I hope we can carry out awareness-raising activities.”