Manga Publishers Exploring Legal Action Against One of the Internet's Top Piracy Sites

Megan Peters

07/14/2022 06:07 pm EDT

It is good to be a manga reader these days. The medium is one of the biggest selling in stores right now, and more titles than ever are making their way out of Japan to fans. The industry's growth is hard to comprehend, but it has come at a price. As always, piracy is running rampant in manga, and two publishers are now looking into legal action against one of the biggest piracy sites on the Internet.

The information comes from a California district court as an ex parte application was uncovered by TorrentFreak. The site learned the legal teams at Shueisha and Viz Media are seeking an order that would allow them to gain "documents and statements for use in foreign legal processes."

The application goes on to name the services the legal case is looking in to. One is Manganelo as the site reportedly brings in 24 million visits each month. The other site listed is on another level of traffic when it comes to users. Shueisha and Viz Media are seeking to obtain information on Manganato which brought in more than 180 million visits in March 2022. That is more traffic than The Pirate Bay and Fmovies combined despite those two sites being highly trafficked by pirates.

According to the application, a variety of information is being sought by the legal teams mentioned, and their filings consist of hundreds of pages so far. At this time, there is no word on whether the publishers will file civil or criminal proceedings against the piracy sites. This latest investigation comes after Shueisha and other major manga publishers vowed to crackdown on pirates globally, and a slew of high-traffic services have been brought to court in response.

What do you make of this latest manga lawsuit? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.

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