Shueisha Targets Manga Pirates with US Court, Google, PayPal, and VISA Assistance

• Publishing company Shueisha pursues manga pirates in the U.S., leveraging Cloudflare, PayPal, and VISA data.
• The Japanese company intends to uncover the identity of the pirate websites’ operators and hit the individuals with civil lawsuits.
• Cloudflare has already disclosed vital data, such as email addresses and financial transactions linked to the pirate domains’ admins.

Japanese publishing giant Shueisha is intensifying its battle against international manga piracy by leveraging U.S. legal resources. The company has requested a California court to grant it the ability to conduct discovery, seeking information from Google, VISA, and PayPal, according to a Torrent Freak report. 

This legal maneuver aims to uncover the identities of operators behind pirate sites hosting unauthorized manga downloads in the U.S. and maybe obtain evidence to help identify the operators of several pirate sites who can be hit with civil lawsuits for damages in Japan.

A DMCA subpoena served to Cloudflare has already disclosed vital data, including email addresses and financial transactions linked to VISA and PayPal, establishing digital footprints that trace back to alleged infringers. 

In response to the subpoena, Cloudflare apparently provided data regarding piracy domains  mangakoma01.net, mangarawjp.asia, mangaraw.onl, mangarawjp.onl, spoilerplus.net, rawkuma.com, truyenqqvn.com, and mangaspoiler.net.

Cloudflare-provided data also included four Google AdSense accounts publicly associated with the pirate sites that apparently link the operators to other domains – one of which reveals tracking of site visitors and more. Shueisha intends to present a prima facie civil case against each of the currently anonymous operators for violating Article 709 of the Civil Code.

Successfully obtaining and utilizing data from major U.S. corporations could set a precedent, encouraging other international rights holders to pursue similar legal strategies against online piracy.

Shueisha displays a robust defensive stance and also emphasizes the evolving intersection of technology, law, and cross-border applications in tackling digital piracy. 

Recently, Webtoon Entertainment targeted 170 unique pirate domains that allegedly violated intellectual property rights with a DMCA subpoena that required Cloudflare to expose their operators’ details.