Summary
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MangaDex, one of the largest aggregators of illegal manga content, recently suffered a major blow after over 700 series were removed from the website. In recent years, many Japanese publishers and production companies have tried to crack down on the illegal distribution of manga and anime. Shueisha, for example, has taken many actions to stop piracy and leaks of its popular manga magazine,Shonen Jump(One Piece,Jujutsu Kaisen).
The shared goal of stopping piracy has led many companies to join forces to shut down major websites— in Japan, the creation of CODA is related to this effort. However, piracy is not an easy issue to resolve simply by shutting down websites. Many associations have been working with governments to bring people involved in piracy to court.
The Case of MangaDex and Online Piracy
Over the past few hours,MangaDex has received a massive number of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices. As a result, the website has removed chapters from numerous series. Reports claim thatover 700 series have been affected so far, but the actual number could be higher and may still grow in the coming hours. Fans have even organized a list of all the affected series on platforms like Reddit.
The notices came from different companies, making it appear to be a coordinated effort. Accordingto publicly available data, the companies include Kakao, Naver, Square Enix, Kodansha, Houbunsha, and many others — apparently,Comeso, a company that offers anti-piracy services, is acting on behalf of several of these companies, though not all the notices were issued by Comeso. These notices were not only aimed at MangaDex; however, it is probably the biggest website affected. The titles removedincludeThe Apothecary Diaries, Gachiakuta, Fate, and many others.
Apparently, both licensed and unlicensed titles were removed from the platform — while scanlating unlicensed content is still technically illegal, fans tend to view it as a minor issue because they wouldn’t have access to the series otherwise. According to a moderator, this is the first time something of this scale has happened to the website. Many fans were surprised because MangaDex is known in the community for its “profit-free” approach: the platform is ad-free, and it allegedly doesn’t profit from aggregating content.
The platform has even recently announced a new policy to tackle scanlation groups that were “profiting excessively.” However, from a legal perspective,unlicensed distribution is still illegal, even if hosted on an ad-free platform. It is debatable whether MangaDex, as an aggregator, would have any legal responsibility for content posted on its platform, but they must comply with DMCA notices in any case.
What Will Happen From Now On?
The coordinated submission of a large number of DMCA notices will probably make MangaDex administrators and scanlation groups afraid of similar actions in the future. This could eventually lead to MangaDex shutting down. However, just as MangaDex was created after Batoto shut down, scanlators willlikely find a new platform.
MangaDex is still operating despite the massive amount of DMCA notices.
Source:Anime Corner
Shonen Jump
Shonen Jump is Japan’s largest manga magazine and home to major hits like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia. Launched in 1968, the magazine has been published weekly ever since.
