News: 1643692509

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Attack on Titan: Four Japanese Manga publishers sue Cloudflare

(2022/02/01)


Four major Manga publishers are set to sue internet-grooming firm Cloudflare, on grounds its content delivery network facilitates piracy of their wares.

The four companies – Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan and Kadokawa – together dominate the market for Japanese comics and own many iconic properties.

The publishers also believe they're victims of widespread piracy.

[1]

Japanese media [2]report the companies are therefore going to file a suit against Cloudflare, which they feel facilitates piracy by providing its services to sites that share unlicensed Manga.

[3]

[4]

Cloudflare has seen this movie before: in 2017 Japanese publishers asked it to help take down a pirate Manga site called Mangamura. Cloudflare helped, and Mangamura collapsed. Cloudflare later promised to stop mirroring Japanese sites if it was satisfied the content they host was pirated.

The four publishers and Cloudflare settled an action after that incident.

[5]Volunteer-run pirate Manga website attacked, loses hashed passwords, has ‘nobody’ to fix the mess

[6]Japan's bullet trains replace smoking rooms with Zooming rooms

[7]No more DRM-free downloads as Amazon's ComiXology app set to disappear inside Kindle

[8]Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo dies aged 92

Now the publishers are back, again arguing that any form of facilitation of unlicensed distribution harms the entire manga community – from artists and writers to distributors and bookstores.

The four plan to pursue action in the Japanese Supreme Court.

[9]

Japanese media report that Cloudflare has denied that its services assist pirates. The Register has asked Cloudflare for further comment. ®

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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YfkS3NUgpC7OI2TKQxS-qwAAAFg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[2] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/01/31/national/crime-legal/manga-publishers-cloudflare/

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YfkS3NUgpC7OI2TKQxS-qwAAAFg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YfkS3NUgpC7OI2TKQxS-qwAAAFg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/26/mangadex_data_breach/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/27/central_japan_railway_company_s_work_vehicle/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/14/comixology_kindle/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/25/asterix_cocreator_albert_uderzo_dies/

[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YfkS3NUgpC7OI2TKQxS-qwAAAFg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



Cloudflare has denied that its services assist pirates

Kevin McMurtrie

ROTFL

Now tell us that you take abuse seriously too.

Japanese Supreme Court?

Anonymous Coward

Given Japanese courts were handing out (suspended) jail sentences and 2 million yen fines to Youtubers posting review videos of copyrighted films, this is an open and shut case in a Japanese court.

Pascal Monett

So, in Japan it is forbidden to review a film ? If you're a nobody, that is.

Well that's just nuts.

Criminny Rickets

So based on their claim, when are they taking all the ISP's to court?

Gordon 10

Why stop there? Lets takedown all the DNS servers.

Even better why dont they go after ICANN? I'll get the popcorn.

Ian Johnston

John Bunt is dead.

For those who don't know, he tried that back in 2006 when he sued three ISPs whose customers had, he said, posted disparaging remarks on the forums of a laptop battery website he had set up. He lost, completely. https://www.5rb.com/case/bunt-v-tilley-others/

UCAP

That case was in the UK courts. Do the Japanese courts think on the same lines, or do they prefer to follow the US model of justice.

Anonymous Coward

Let me correct that for you: US model of retribution.

Doctor Syntax

Don't be silly. It's the best justice money can buy.

It is not enough to have great qualities, we should also have the
management of them.
-- La Rochefoucauld