Jul 31, 2014
NHK, and subsequently other news sites such as Crunchyroll, have gotten the scoop on this. The Japanese government is starting a crackdown on anime/manga piracy starting this coming August 2014. This, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
The government crackdown is in purportedly in partnership with 15 major anime production companies and manga publishers, and will target around 580 works (500 manga works and 80 anime series) that have been illegally uploaded. METI will be monitoring and cracking down on said works for the next five months.
At the same time, METI has also launched “Manga-Anime Here”, a new website promoting anime and manga works linked to various legitimate sources: http://manga-anime-here.com, and the Manga-Anime Guardians project (MAGP) as a means to promote anti-piracy activities. Take note however that not all of the referred content in the said website are free. Other works require a premium fee or subscription in order to gain full access, with the most recent episodes/volumes costing around USD10.00 or more. Other anime series have regional restrictions as well, preventing people from other countries to view content (Case in point: Toriko in Crunchyroll has been region-blocked in the Philippines).
METI has reported that anime/manga piracy amounts to a whopping USD 5.6 billion in damages in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chongqing, China. Around USD 20 billion has been the estimated cost of damages due to online piracy, on the other hand.
MAGP has also posted a thank you message to everyone who loves anime and mange via a video montage of 42 anime characters.
Manga-Anime Here and the MAGP is a joint project of METI and the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA).
Full Official Statement below:
METI to Start the First Cross-Industry Anti-Piracy Measures for Manga and Anime
On July 28, 2014, along with launching a web site collecting links of legitimate Japanese Manga and Anime, called “Manga-Anime here” (URL：http://manga-anime-here.com External Site Link), METI will start to monitor and remove illegally uploaded copies of around 580 works over five months.
With a decrease in piracy in the market and through fair reward for legitimate contents, which leads to the creation of new contents, this project aims to generate a positive growth cycle
Recently the cost of damage from pirate copies of Manga and Anime has been expanding. According to a report in 2013 from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, in major cities of China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chongqing) the cost of damage to Japanese contents is JPY 560 billion (approximately US$ 5.6 billion) per year. Also a 2014 METI report indicates that the estimated cost of damage from online piracy is as much as JPY 2 trillion (approximately US$ 20 billion).
Taking countermeasures against the serious damage caused by piracy, the Manga-Anime Anti-Piracy Committee was formed in July 2013 in response to a proposal by METI then subsequently launched the Manga-Anime Guardians Project (MAGP) to promote antipiracy activities.
Sources:
NHK
Crunchyroll
METI
Manga-Anime Here
