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You Wouldn't Download Sgt. Frog, Would You?
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Mine Yoshizaki's Sgt. Frog characters appeared in a 15-second ad to remind kids not to download movies. The ad, titled "STOP! Piracy Edition' Keroro Gunsō x 'NO MORE Movie Thief,'" sees Keroro and his fellow aliens quickly captured when they attempt to pirate media on various devices.
The characters appeared in a similar, longer video ad in December. The property has worked with anti-piracy efforts and appeared in various campaigns since at least 2020.
The anti-piracy campaign is organized by Japan's Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) and is part of a larger effort to stop piracy of anime, manga, film, and video games. CODA includes 32 Japanese companies such as Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, Aniplex, Kadokawa, Sunrise, Studio Ghibli, Bandai Namco Arts, Pony Canyon, Toei Animation, and more.
Nikkei Asia reported on January 1 that companies and organizations from over 13 countries are cooperating to form the International Anti-Piracy Organization (IAPO), which will launch in April. IAPO will also include The Motion Picture Association of the United States (which has six members including Sony Pictures and Netflix), and approximately 450 members of the Copyright Society of China. Companies and copyright protection groups from South Korea and Vietnam are also expected to participate in the coalition.
According to Nikkei Asia, piracy cost the manga industry approximately 800 billion yen (US$6.92 billion) in Japan alone from January-October 2021. Nikkei Asia stated that number exceeds the amount of the entire market for authorized publications, which it estimated at 600 billion yen (about US$5.19 billion) yearly. The Asahi Shimbun reported that, according to the Authorized Books of Japan (ABJ), a Tokyo-based association working to crack down on pirated manga, the 10 most popular manga piracy websites received approximately 240 million monthly hits from April 17, 2018 to June 2021, after Japanese-language manga piracy site Mangamura became inaccessible. According to ABJ, the top three websites saw a 14-fold increase in views from January 2020 to April 2021.
The Fukuoka District Court handed down a guilty verdict on June 30, 2021 to Romi Hoshino, a.k.a. Zakay Romi, the alleged administrator of Mangamura, on charges of copyright infringement and hiding criminal proceeds. 29-year-old Hoshino was sentenced to three years in prison, a fine of 10 million yen (about US$91,100), and an additional fine of 62 million yen (about US$565,000). The latter is based on the 62 million yen in revenue that Hoshino earned from the site and deposited to a foreign bank account.
In December, two advertisement agencies, MM Lab and Global Net, were ordered to pay 11 million yen (about US$96,303) for soliciting advertisements on Japanese-language manga piracy site Mangamura. Manga creator Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina, Negima!, UQ Holder!) filed the lawsuit against both agencies, claiming that his manga had been illegally posted on Mangamura.
Japanese publishers Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Kadokawa filed a lawsuit against the American Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare in the Tokyo District Court in February. The lawsuit alleges that Cloudflare distributes data for manga piracy sites that infringes on the publishers' copyrights, and the companies are seeking an injunction and about 400 million yen (about US$3.5 million) in compensation for damages.
Source: Comic Natalie
