The big four of manga publishers in Japan – Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Kadokawa – have dragged the American web infrastructure company Cloudflare to court on charges of hosting servers containing pirated manga, Japan Today reported. The publishers accuse Cloudfare of hosting a server that is powerful enough to support an average monthly viewership of 300 million and distribute about 4000 manga titles.

The publishers claim all of this has led to them incurring direct losses and are seeking 400 million yen or $3.5 million in damages from the American firm. The publishers will be filing the lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court this week.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that the Japanese manga publishers have found issues with Cloudflare with both having engaged in a court battle back in 2019. The publishers – Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Kadokawa – had then filed a lawsuit against the American company in the Tokyo District Court and had sought 460 million yen (about US$4 million) in damages. Cloudflare had then agreed to stop hosting sites that offer pirated manga content.

The four publishers have been waging a long battle against piracy sites that lure viewers by offering popular manga titles such as One Piece or Attack on Titan for free. The publishers said this has led to them incurring losses in millions of dollars in Japan alone. The figure would be significantly higher if the entire world is taken into account.

The four publishers meanwhile form part of the Content Overseas Distribution Association in Japan and would be heading the International Anti-Piracy Organization as well. The latter will also have representation from 13 other countries and are committed to stopping piracy so that the actual content creators get to benefit from their creations.

Such an international effort in curbing piracy is important as this will help in bringing to book sites engaged in illegal activity that often escapes the law by working outside the jurisdiction of the local law enforcing agencies, the site WeGotDiscovered reported. The IAPO aims to bypass such instances by sharing information among the member publishers while also reaching out to the local government as well if the situation demands a more effective and thorough investigation.

The IAPO will also count among its members the Motion Picture Association as well which in turn comprises of companies such as Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and Netflix. The IAPO is set to go official this April itself.

The post Japanese big four manga publishers to sue American firm for piracy, again first appeared on Good e-Reader.