Historic Anime Piracy Case Finds Chinese Defendants Guilty
The operators of China's largest anime piracy site have been found guilty in a historic case.
There is no denying the issue that anime piracy causes the industry. Over the decades, billions of dollars have been lost to pirates as there are untold sites streaming anime illicitly. In the past decade, publishers and networks in Japan have started pushing the law against these sits. Now, a historic ruling for the anime industry has been handed down, and it comes from the courts in China.
According to the Content Overseas Distribution Association, the ruling was made public today after the operations of B9GOOD were put on trial. The report states the People's Court of Taizhou Pharmaceutical High-Tech Industrial Development Zone sentenced several people associated with B9GOOD to prison. The ruling found Male A to three years in prison along with a lengthy suspension. Plus, the defendant was charged with a RMB 1.8 million which is about $250,000 USD.
Male A was not the only person arrested in this case involving B9GOOD. A defendant known as Female B was sentence to one year in prison due to copyright infringement offenses. As for Female D, they were also sentenced to eight months in prison. But as for Male C, the person who uploaded the content to B9GOOD, they were given leniency in the case according to local laws.
According to reports, Male A did admit to the crimes against him, and more than 45,000 anime series were uploaded to the site without permission. With this case complete, it marks a historic victory for publishers in Japan. After all, this is the first time criminal sentences have been given to piracy site operators outside of Japan due to publisher requests. So if you dabble with anime piracy, this case should act as a lesson. Publishers are looking for offenders, and they will appeal to local governments to see pirates face charges.
Of course, this latest report by CODA comes after a slew of high-profile arrests regarding manga piracy. In Japan, a few foreigners were arrested for allegedly leaking material from magazines published by Shueisha and Kodansha. Authorities in Japan suspect more leakers were involved in the case and are pursuing leads to nail the offenders. It is clear that manga publishers are just as fed up with piracy as anime publishers are. And with billions of dollars on the line, you can see why their frustration is coming to a head.
What do you make of this latest anime case? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!
