La collaboration s'annonce grandiose, mais Shinichi Kudo ne sera pas au programme.

Dans un mois, l'œuvre de feu Akira Toriyama fera son retour sur nos écrans avec une histoire inédite célébrant les 40 ans du manga.

Last month, Japan-based anti-piracy group Authorized Books of Japan (ABJ) ran a newspaper advertising campaign in the United States, Italy, Spain, and France.

Its launch on July 17 was declared “Manga Day” and its purpose was to raise awareness of manga piracy by thanking those who pay for comics, rather than attacking those who do not pay. The ad below ran in the New York Times, with variants making an appearance in La Repubblica, El Pais, and Le Monde.

Most anti-piracy campaigns focus on negatives in the hope that fear overwhelms pirates to the extent they feel happier buying. ABJ’s campaign tries a different approach, one that has enjoyed success in Japan.

By showing appreciation towards people who pay ( “Thank you for reading official versions” ) it’s hoped that positivity will be better received and ultimately have a more lasting effect among manga’s continuously expanding fan base.

A Mountain to Climb

The world-famous news publications mentioned above have faced considerable challenges with the transition to digital, including unauthorized digital copies of their products being made available online by pirate sites. Yet, based on the sheer scale of piracy, none have experienced anything close to that taking place in the manga market.

When the campaign launched in the United States and Europe last month, ABJ reported that a total of 1,332 pirate sites, most dedicated to manga, were offering comics for free viewing online or otherwise making them available for download. The lion’s share is made available on a relatively small number of sites, mostly offering manga translated into English, and together pulling in billions of annual visits.

“The amount of free reading per month on the top 10 English translation piracy sites alone amounts to 800 million US dollars, a figure that is increasing every year and requires immediate action,” ABJ reported, citing figures from May 2024.

Recent Data on Manga Piracy

The reports supporting these claims aren’t usually made directly available in full. However, they do make appearances in support of presentations, seminars (videos of which sometimes appear on YouTube), and government meetings back in Japan. That often means that background documentation is available from public sources.

The first slide below relates to the Top 10 sites mentioned earlier; redactions are the work of ABJ, any English text represents our translations from Japanese to English.

One of the most striking aspects of this slide is the apparent massive growth of several sites in the top 10 over the space of just a month. ABJ reports that the site in the #1 position in May ranked #4 a month earlier in April after what appears to be a doubling of its traffic.

How the site managed to do that isn’t explained, but given the nature of the niche, where sites frequently disappear and rebrand, only to reappear, rinse and repeat, visitor numbers can fluctuate drastically before settling down again.

In a slide dated early July, ABJ states that “accesses have decreased due to the shutdown of large sites” but also cites concerns “over the emergence and growth of mass-produced sites by certain groups.” The anti-piracy organization doesn’t name the group, but it may be a reference to activity in Vietnam. Sites can give the impression of being mass-produced due to how quickly they disappear and reappear, while still managing to retain traffic despite new branding.

Another familiar scenario is outlined as follows: “Sites with the same content are provided via multiple domain names and CDNs. Images are stored in the same location or the same images are used.” Without specifics, it’s difficult to identify the sites in question, but this may be a reference to content sources remaining mostly static, with various front ends and domain names jumping around to give the impression of multiple moving targets.

It’s disorientating by design and can lead to the appearance of 100 new target sites in as little as a month.

Sites Cater to Various Audiences

As an indication of how site numbers can ebb and flow, ABJ reports that a total of 1,332 pirate sites were offering pirated manga in May 2024. Figures from February reveal a total of 1,207 sites, catering to various audiences. As broken down by ABJ, 294 sites were listed as catering to Japan, while 466 sites were offering English translations.

The remaining 477 sites were offering manga in languages other than Japanese or English, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Italian. By volume, English translation sites take the top slot overall, followed by Japanese language platforms and those offering content in Vietnamese.

Piracy Rates in Recent Years to Present Date

Research by ABJ estimates that free viewing of manga titles on pirate sites cost the industry the following amounts:

• 2020 – ~210 billion yen (estimated as of February 2021)

• 2021 – ~1.19 trillion yen (estimated as of February 2022)

• 2022 – ~506.9 billion yen (estimated as of February 2023)

• 2023 – ~381.8 billion yen (as of the end of January 2024)

The exact reason for the significant reduction in 2023 over the figures reported in 2022 is unknown, but ABJ identifies two possibilities. The first, “expedited measures” to remove links to pirated content from Google search results, which began during the fall of 2022. The second, “the unprecedented proliferation of the ongoing “STOP! Piracy Campaign.”

“We have built up various measures and realized a decrease of about 25% from 2022 to 2023,” ABJ explains.

The above is just the tip of a very large, coordinated effort, which also includes work by anti-piracy group CODA, to tackle piracy of all kinds of Japanese content, wherever it takes place. When the tide will conclusively turn is unknown, but the nature and scale of the effort suggests that it’s no longer the impossible mission it once appeared.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Sans surprise, l'adaptation extrêmement populaire du manga de Naoya Matsumoto s'offre une seconde saison qui ne tardera pas.

Plus de 40 ans après la série originale, le prince Actarus et son robot Goldorak sont enfin de retour dans une série animée moderne.

Harold Pinter theatre, London
Already adapted into a film and TV series, this vibrant if at times conventional stage version of the beloved manga delivers pop, classical, dance and teenage angst

In Naoshi Arakawa’s beloved manga Your Lie in April – also a film and anime series – renowned piano player Kōsei is unable to perform music after the death of his mother, haunted as he is by her uncompromising teaching methods. Kōsei is charming and sarcastic, two traits that have translated well from page to stage in this new adaptation by Riko Sakaguchi and Rinne B. Groff, with music by Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn.

The troubled young pianist (played by Zheng Xi Yong) meets an effervescent violinist, Kaori (Mia Kobayashi), who is criticised by music judges for her unwillingness to strictly follow scores. As she and Kōsei form a new musical partnership, tragedy strikes. The familiar love story trope of boy meets girl (before boy’s fate changes) is given fresh energy by merging components that, frankly, should not work together: poppy show tunes, gripping classical music solos, energetic choreography and teen banter.

Your Lie in April is at the Harold Pinter theatre, London, until 21 September

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Decades of experience supports the theory that intellectual property infringement is often viewed by China as a problem to be solved by those complaining of violations on home territory.

That the loudest voices continue to import mountains of Chinese-manufactured goods, including items that in some cases violate copyright and trademark laws, serves to illustrate why differences on IP enforcement are likely to continue.

Other conundrums, including IP rights owned by U.S. companies being strategically infringed by Chinese citizens, in ways that avoid liability in China itself, has led to limited enforcement opportunities and in some cases, rampant piracy.

Early March we reported on the work of Japan-based anti-piracy group CODA. After formulating an impressive strategy and demonstrating significant patience, the company now benefits from having its own office in Beijing.

From there, big things are playing out, including collaboration with Chinese authorities which led to three people behind pirate anime site B9Good being convicted earlier this year .

CODA Files Criminal Complaints Against Pirate Services

New information published by CODA on Wednesday reveals success in two other cases relating to pirate streaming. The services offered mainstream movies and TV shows owned by companies in the United States, United Kingdom, and France, among others.

Since a library of more than 30,000 anime episodes were also available for viewing, CODA’s Beijing office was prompted to file criminal copyright complaints with the Public Security Bureau of Jiangsu Province.

11 Arrests, Servers and Other Hardware Seized

In the first case, CODA reports that the Public Security Bureau of Taizhou City sent 54 investigators and other personnel to the Chongqing, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanghai, Hebei, and Anhui provinces to conduct simultaneous searches of multiple suspects in various locations.

“The searches revealed that a subscription-style website called Shenlan had been established and operated, which copied a large amount of Japanese content, mainly anime, without permission from the rights holders, and uploaded it to a personal media server, which is a legal service, to enable streaming playback from various devices,” the anti-piracy group reports.

“As a result of the investigation, a total of 10 people, including the main culprit A (36 years old), a man living in Chongqing, who operated Shenlan and sold account information for accessing ‘Shenlan’ from the website and app on his own website, were arrested on suspicion of copyright law violations.

“In addition, nine laptops, two desktops, two servers, 11 mobile phones, and multiple storage devices were seized during the search, and the administrative accounts and passwords were obtained, and all data on the servers was preserved as evidence,” CODA reports.

Another suspect was arrested in Hubei Province on January 24th, making a total of 11 arrests in connection with the now shuttered service.

Intelligence Obtained, Police Target Second Pirate Operation

On June 5, 2024, the Public Security Bureau of Yangzhou City sent a total of eleven investigators and cybersecurity experts to the home and workplace of two other men. Information about the suspected brothers was obtained via another suspect’s testimony following the raids in January.

During the searches investigators identified a subscription piracy service called COCO operating in similar fashion to the Shenlan service previously taken down. Even greater volumes of pirated content were accessible via COCO , however; around 100,000 TV episodes were available for streaming which included 20,000 episodes of Japanese content, mostly anime.

“ COCO was opened by male B in May 2021, and male B was mainly responsible for its operation and maintenance. He operated the site from December 2023 until his arrest in June 2024, recruiting his older brother, male C, as a member of the operation,” CODA reports.

“During the search, PCs, server equipment, etc. were seized, and the administrative account and password of COCO were obtained, and all data on the server was preserved as evidence.”

China Prosecutes More Pirates Than Outsiders May Think

Research on the CODA cases led to an unexpected discovery. In contrast to reports implying a lax approach to infringement, Chinese authorities seem remarkably busy when it comes to prosecuting operators of pirate sites.

An article published on a government website late February, titled: “I just wanted to release pirated movies to earn some advertising fees, but I didn’t expect to be convicted and sentenced…” tells the story of a person identified as ‘Ke’ who chose piracy as an easy way to make money.

The report notes that since Ke majored in computer science, he figured that running a piracy service would be a low-cost, high-return business model that would generate some much-needed cash. Details aren’t specific but Ke reportedly began by “buying a website and the services it contained” which may suggest some kind of streaming template and content derived from a third-party source.

Whatever it was, Ke reportedly became more adventurous, soon deploying web crawlers to identify movies and TV shows available elsewhere on the web before storing them on his own server. He ended up running his own pirate streaming site and a ‘cinema app’ which attracted attention from advertisers in early 2022.

In May that same year, authorities received a complaint from rightsholders. At this point, Ke had a library of more than 50,000 movies and TV shows and after an investigation, he was sentenced in April 2023 to three years in prison, suspended, and fined 400,000 yuan, around US$55,000

More Prosecutions Recently Than the United States?

A February 2024 report in local media is just one of many detailing the prosecution of pirate site operators in China. This particular case was supervised by five government departments, including the Copyright Bureau and Intellectual Property Office.

A man identified as ‘Deng’ was the operator of a website where “video enthusiasts” could view movies, TV shows, and documentaries. Authorities say the plan was to attract people prepared to pay for ultra-high definition content to be delivered to their homes. When police raided Deng’s home, they found more than 317,000 pirated films and TV series, 17 computers, and 200 large capacity hard drives.

Investigators later revealed that between December 2019 and February 2023, Deng had purchased over 30,000 master discs from multiple suppliers in China, and used those as a basis for a wholesale piracy business supplying other groups around the country. At trial , the court sentenced Deng to three years and two months in prison, fined him 150,000 yuan (~US$20,600), and confiscated his illegal gains.

As recently as this April, authorities were reporting another crackdown against sites illegally offering Spring Festival films, plus an additional 200,000 movies and TV shows obtained from various platforms.

Seven suspects were arrested and 20 websites were reportedly shut down . Following a recent trial, a court sentenced three men to prison for copyright infringement, with terms ranging from ten months to four years, plus fines. Two other men received suspended prison sentences.

While China’s priorities differ from those of the United States, there appears to be consensus on the need to clamp down on movie and TV show piracy. Whose movies and TV shows should receive priority protection remains an argument for another day.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

L'été ne sera pas forcément chaud, mais au moins, on aura de quoi lire en vacances.

Bandai Namco continue de se reposer sur les arena fighters en dépoussiérant cette fois-ci la franchise Bleach de Tite Kubo.