CODA Teams Up with China to Take Down Major Piracy Website Owner
Discover the story behind the suspect running an anime piracy website since 2022—uncover the impact on creators and fans alike!
Arrest Made in Anime Piracy Case
Suspect had run anime piracy website since 2022
Japan's Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) announced on Friday that a man from Liaoning Province, China, has been arrested by the Shijiazhuang Public Security Bureau. He is suspected of operating the Zzzfun piracy website, which illegally distributed anime and other content to users in China through its website and app.
Details of the Case
- The suspect allegedly ran the site since 2022.
- He uploaded approximately 1,800 anime episodes.
- Estimated earnings from the site were around 330,000 RMB (US$45,000).
The CODA Beijing Office filed a criminal complaint with the Public Security Bureau last May on behalf of several major companies, including:
- Aniplex
- Kadokawa
- King Records
- Kodansha
- Shogakukan
- Square Enix
- TV Tokyo
- Toei Animation
- TOHO
- Nikkatsu
- Happinet Phantom Studios
- Fuji Television Network
- Pony Canyon
These companies cooperated with the investigation.
Other Recent Piracy Cases
CODA, which aims to combat global piracy and promote the international distribution of Japanese content, revealed on August 26 that several anime piracy websites in Brazil were shut down following a criminal complaint filed by a CODA member company. These sites had subtitled anime in Portuguese and restricted access to Japanese IP addresses to evade detection by rights holders.
In related news, Torrent Freak reported on August 27 that several piracy websites, including Fmovies, AnimeSuge, and Aniwave (formerly 9anime), had been shut down. Aniwave announced its closure on Reddit in late August, while Reddit users noted the shutdown of AnimeSuge as well.
Before its closure, Aniwave had approximately 170 million visits per month.
A few days later, the American-based Motion Picture Association's Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) announced its collaboration with Hanoi police in Vietnam to shut down Fmovies and other notorious piracy sites. ACE reported that these sites had a combined total of nearly 374 million monthly visits and over 6.7 billion visits from January 2023 to June 2024.
Additionally, on August 30, PCR Distributing, a California-based company, filed a lawsuit against the adult site nHentai for copyright infringement. The lawsuit claims that nHentai distributes thousands of pirated works, including five registered works owned by PCR Distributing. The lawsuit also noted that nHentai has not complied with previous DMCA takedown notices and averages around 79.38 million monthly visitors, primarily from the United States and Japan.
Sources: CODA, Anime! Anime!