Those carrying out the attacks have a variety of motives, from extortion and blackmail to “the lulz“, and a dozen reasons in between. Often the reasons are never discovered.

During the past few days several sites involved in the unauthorized sharing of anime have been targeted by DDoS-style attacks. Swaps4 reported that Haruhichan, Tokyo Toshokan and AnimeTake were under assault from assailants unknown, although all now appear to be back online.

A far more serious situation has played out at NYAA.se, however. The site is probably the largest public dedicated anime torrent index around and after being hit with an attack last weekend it remains offline today. The attack on NYAA had wider effects too.

NYAA and leading fan-subbing site HorribleSubs reportedly shared the same hosting infrastructure so the DDoS attack took down both sites. That’s significant, not least since at the end of August HorribleSubs reported that their titles had been downloaded half a billion times.

As the image above shows it now appears that HorribleSubs has recovered (and added torrent magnet links) but the same cannot be said about NYAA. The site’s extended downtime continues with no apparent end in sight. This has resulted in a backlash from the site’s fans and somewhat inevitably accusatory fingers are being pointed at potential DDoS suspects.

As far-fetched as it might sound, one of the early suspects was the Japanese government itself. The launch of a brand new anti-piracy campaign last month in partnership with 15 producers certainly provided a motive, but a nation carrying out this kind of assault seems unlikely in the extreme.

Quickly, however, an announcement from HorribleSubs turned attentions elsewhere.

“Chill down. It’s not just us. Every famous anime sites [are] getting DDoS attacks, but that doesn’t mean this is the end,” the site’s operator wrote on Facebook.

“We have located where DDoS are coming from. It’s from ‪#‎Crunchyroll‬ and ‪#‎Funimation‬ Employees.”

Update: HorribleSubs inform TF that the Facebook page listed is “in no way managed nor affiliated with HorribleSubs and as such all opinions and views expressed on that page does not reflect the views and opinions of the HorribleSubs management.”

Funimation is an US television and film production company best known for its distribution of anime while Crunchyroll is a website and community focused on, among other things, Asian anime and manga. While both could at least have a motive to carry out a DDoS, no evidence has been produced to back up the HorribleSubs claims. That said, HorribleSubs admits that its key motivation is to annoy Crunchyroll.

“We do not translate our own shows because we rip from Crunchyroll, FUNimation, Hulu, The Anime Network, Niconico, and Daisuki,” the site’s about page reads, adding: “We aren’t doing this for e-penis but for the sole reason of pissing off Crunchyroll.”

Shortly after, attention turned to anti-piracy outfit Remove Your Media (RYM). The company works with anime companies Funimation and Viz Media, which includes the sending of millions of DMCA notices to Google. The spark came when the company published a tweet (now removed) which threatened to send “thousands” of warning letters to NYAA users once the site was back online.

This doesn’t seem like an idle threat. A few weeks ago the company posted a screenshot on Twitter containing an unredacted list of Comcast, Charter and CenturyLink IP addresses said to have been monitored infringing copyright. Due to the NYAA downtime, RYM later indicated it had switched to warning users of Kickass.to.

This involvement with anime companies combined with the warning notice statement led to DDoS accusations being directed at RYM. TorrentFreak spoke to the company’s Eric Green and asked if they knew anything about the attacks.

“The short answer is No. In fact we were waiting for [NYAA] to go back
online to begin monitoring illegal transfers again. Sorry to disappoint but we
had no involvement,” Green told TF.

Just a couple of hours ago RYM made a new announcement on Twitter, stating that the original tweet had been removed due to false accusations.

“Nyaa post deleted due to all the Ddos libel directed at this account. Infringement notices continue to ISPs, for piracy, regardless of tracker,” they conclude.

Although it’s impossible to say who is behind the attacks, it does seem improbable that an anti-piracy company getting paid to send notices would do something that is a) seriously illegal and b) counter-productive to getting paid for sending notices.

That said, it seems likely that someone who doesn’t appreciate unofficial anime sites operating smoothly is behind the attack. Who that might be will remain a mystery, at least for now.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

To support existing punishments of up to 10 years in prison for uploaders, knowingly downloading copyright-infringing material became an offense carrying a potential two years in jail. While it was hoped that these measures would encourage consumers to do the right thing, today the problems persist.

As a result, this week the Japanese government will act in order to preserve what it sees as one of its greatest cultural exports.

Anime and manga are now consumed in countries right around the world and Japan sees this interest in Japanese culture as useful to its relationships abroad. However, with that popularity comes piracy, much of it facilitated by unlicensed overseas sites.

In the hope of remedying the situation overseas, this Friday will see the launch of a massive anti-piracy campaign aimed at making a huge dent in anime and manga piracy.

The government and 15 leading producers and distributors will begin contacting an estimated 580 “overseas pirate sites” with demands that they mass-delete infringing content. The sites are located in various regions, but there will be a particular focus on China.

Whether those sites will comply will remain to be seen, but should pirate content become harder to find the campaign wants to be able to capitalize on that opportunity. According to NHK, a new site will direct fans to legal copies of the 250 affected works at a flat price of a few hundred yen.

“We want to create a project so that anime fans overseas can enjoy Japanese content legally and without infringement worries while the profits are paid to anime production companies and publishers,” a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry spokesman said.

It seems highly unlikely that overseas sites will comply fully with the requests of the Japanese. However, by attempting to serve the overseas markets with legal content it will at least make it easier for foreigners to open their wallets, should they feel inclined to do so.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The first big crackdown followed in February 2013, when police carried out searches on 124 locations and arrested 27 people suspected of sharing music, movies, TV shows, games and software without permission.

Now, almost exactly a year later, authorities have been flexing their muscles again, this time in pursuit of those sharing videos online.

According to Anime News Network, between February 25-27 police raided 123 locations across the country searching for 24 anime pirates using sharing software including Cabos, Share, Perfect Dark and the infamous Winny.

As of last Friday, police had arrested 19 suspects including a 51-year-old company man said to have uploaded several anime videos without permission.

Although P2P file-sharing use is reportedly on a downward trend, figures released last year by the Recording Industry Association of Japan suggested that the country’s tough legislation had done nothing to boost music sales.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The 25 year-old from Ashiyashi City, Hyogo, was detained April 4th on accusations that he uploaded anime and manga without the copyright holders’ permission.

According to the police, the unemployed man uploaded the 50th episode of Sunrise’s Turn A Gundam television series in February, and went on to upload 28,000 files from 300 different animated and comic titles.

He did this, say the police, to become famous.

Read More

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

While the music and movie industry often make outrageous claims about the disastrous effect of piracy on their respective industries, researchers are still divided. Some researchers claim a considerable loss due to unauthorized sharing, while others have found that the overall effect of piracy is a positive one.

RIETI’s study on the effects of piracy on the sales of anime DVDs in Japan falls in the latter category.

In their paper the researchers examine the effects of YouTube and the popular P2P-network Winny on DVD sales and rentals of Japanese anime episodes.

“Estimated equations of 105 anime episodes show that (1) YouTube viewing does not negatively affect DVD rentals, and it appears to help raise DVD sales; and (2) although Winny file sharing negatively affects DVD rentals, it does not affect DVD sales,” the researchers conclude.

“YouTube’s effect of boosting DVD sales can be seen after the TV’s broadcasting of the series has concluded, which suggests that not just a few people learned about the program via a YouTube viewing. In other words YouTube can be interpreted as a promotion tool for DVD sales,” it adds.

The results of the Japanese research confirm that piracy does not always have to be associated with a decrease in sales. Similar effects have been observed for music piracy and book piracy as well.

One point of critique based on the main conclusions of the study, is that the observed relation only appears to be correlational. This may mean that the results could in part be influenced by significant third variables such as promotion and overall popularity. Since the report is only available in Japanese we were unable to confirm whether this was taken into account.

The results of the study come at an interesting time. For years anime distributors where considered quite lenient towards piracy, but last week the American anime distributor Funimation announced lawsuits against 1337 alleged BitTorrent downloaders.

Although it’s not expected that one study will change the tune of the copyright holders who are currently pursing alleged pirated in court, the study does confirm that the availability of unauthorized streams and downloads do not necessarily harm sales. Quite the opposite. The challenge for the content producers is to find the sweet spot that will benefit them, and consumers.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

In an attempt to stop the illicit distribution of the series, the American anime distributor Funimation was ordered by Fractale’s production company to stop the online broadcast of the series on Hulu. The producers wanted Funimation to get rid of all pirated copies online before the broadcast could continue.

An interesting take on how piracy should be dealt with, and arguably one of the worst things a company can do to stop illicit copies from appearing online. Since the broadcast ban was limited to the US but not Europe, it only created an increased demand for pirated copies, while it did little to stop illegal copies from showing up online.

If there’s one thing that TV-distributors should have learned from stpiracy over the years, it would be that making content unavailable to a certain region actually drives the demand for pirated copies.

Just before the second episode of Fractale was due to be released this week, the show’s producers finally gave the green light for the online broadcast to go ahead in the US. They probably realized their mistake, because pirated copies where still easy to find. Both Fractale episodes are now available to US viewers on Hulu, and the storm appeared to be over.

However, after being involved in this Fractale anti-piracy failure last week, Funimation made headlines in the anime community again yesterday, as the company announced lawsuits against 1337 BitTorrent users. Although the number of defendants reveals some sense of humor, the lawsuits are a serious business.

Funimation has sued the 1337 alleged BitTorrent users for downloading episode 481 of One Piece, and is probably looking to settle with the defendants as soon as they are named. The company is represented by lawyer Evan Stone who also filed suits for various adult entertainment companies last year.

In possibly another inside joke aside from picking 1337 defendants, One Piece is a show about “Straw Hat Luffy” and his crew named the Straw Hat Pirates.

The complaint specifically mentions the BitTorrent sites isohunt.com, kickasstorrents.com and nyaatorrents.org as potentially playing a role in the sharing process. Funimation is requesting that the defendants pay damages and destroy all the works they’ve downloaded using BitTorrent.

The above actions are quite unique in the anime community where, more than in most other entertainment industries, most publishers have been quite lenient towards file-sharers. Aside from the negative PR and the potential settlements that will result from the lawsuit, it is however doubtful that it will do much to stop shows from being shared.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Odex used a tracking system to collect IP address of alleged sharers and then in court cases, successfully forced the ISPs StarHub and Singnet to give up the identities of their customers involved in the sweep. Next up, they tried to force another ISP, PacNet to give up the same. However, PacNet refused, so Odex went to court to try to force them to comply. To the dismay of Odex, the court decided that Odex had ‘no right of civil action’ against those it accused of infringing its copyrights, as Odex is only a sub-licensee of the anime titles it distributes, not the copyright holder.

In a very short-lived victory for file-sharers on Tuesday, the High Court dismissed attempts to force PacNet to give up its customers details to Odex. The judge, Justice Woo Bih Li, decided that as Odex had no right in this case to take copyright action, it could not be allowed to see the personal details of PacNet’s customers either.

However, in 2007, Odex added the names of the real six Japanese copyright holders to its case (GDH, Kadokawa Pictures, Showgate, Sunrise, TV Tokyo MediaNet and Yomiuri Telecasting) which, it turns out, was a smart move. Although Justice Woo Bih Li denied Odex a chance to see the records, the real copyright holders are in a position to sue – so he granted them full access to the records instead.

A spokesperson for PacNet said: “Pacnet is glad that the court has ruled in favour of us and has dismissed Odex’s appeal with costs. We will abide by [the] ruling and provide these copyright owners with the details of about 500 IP addresses.”

By some estimates, Odex could’ve made as much as $9m if everyone they accused paid up so they are understandably pleased at the result of the case. A spokesman said: “This ruling in favor of the Japanese copyright owners is a significant boost for us and our principals, as we have always acted for and on behalf of the copyright owners. We are very pleased that Pacnet will now be required to hand over information on the infringing accounts to our copyright owners.”

It’s likely that this decision will encourage Odex to continue with their tactics against file-sharers, tactics which have already resulted in death threats for its boss, Stephen Sing and his family, after being dubbed ‘the most hated man in Singapore’s anime community’.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.