Adult Website Nhentai Sued in U.S. Court for Copyright Infringement by PCR DistributingÂ
Published on September 4, 2024
- Adult site nHentai faces a copyright infringement lawsuit due to alleged unauthorized distribution and ignoring takedown notices.
- PCR Distributing secured a DMCA subpoena, hoping to unmask the website administrators.
- The company argues the site’s content is not user-generated but commercially created
California-based PCR Distributing has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular adult site nHentai. The lawsuit alleges that the website distributes copyrighted content without permission and has failed to respond to multiple DMCA takedown notices.
PCR Distributing, which operates hentai brands such as J18 and JAST USA, views nHentai as a major threat to its business due to the over 79,000,000 monthly visits accessing the unauthorized content.Â
In response to this continued infringement, PCR secured a DMCA subpoena to uncover the identities behind the adult website, requiring Cloudflare to comply.Â
However, nHentai's legal team contested the subpoena, arguing that it should not have been issued and objecting to the disclosure of personal data. This matter is still pending in court.
The recent lawsuit further claims that nHentai is not a user-generated content site and thus cannot claim safe harbor protections under the DMCA. Instead, it argues that the site directly hosts a wide collection of unauthorized hentai works.
PCR is seeking damages and a broad injunction to shut down the website. If granted, the injunction would not only prohibit future copyright infringements but also potentially force PCR to transfer the nHentai.net domain.Â
If not granted, the injunction seeks to block the domain within the United States via third-party intermediaries, including ISPs and search engines.
Meanwhile, nHentai has yet to publicly respond to the lawsuit, though previous objections to the DMCA subpoena suggest an impending legal battle.
Last month, one of the prime hosting platforms for short digital comics targeted some 170 unique pirate websites through a recent DMCA subpoena, including those related to popular sites such as Bato.to, Mangareader.to, and Mangas.in. The Webtoon Entertainment subpoena hopes to reveal the identity of the alleged copyright infringers.
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