Anime and Manga Piracy War Renewed by Netflix & Hollywood

The ongoing fight against anime and manga piracy has been renewed. The Japanese anti-piracy group CODA has signed a two-year extension with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), vowing to continue efforts to deter pirates.

Via TorrentFreak, the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) has renewed its long-standing 10-year partnership with the MPA for another two years. The deal will continue to see the groups work together to "develop new remedies for the problem of online copyright infringement worldwide and strengthen joint copyright protection activities." CODA says that since signing the deal first in 2014 and the five renewals since, it has "achieved great results, including implementing many anti-piracy measures in the Asia-Pacific and beyond, resulting in tens of thousands of crackdowns."

Anime & Manga Companies Like Toei and Shueisha Continue Efforts Against Piracy

Coda's Enforcement page reveals that in full cooperation with the MPA as well as local law enforcement agencies in countries such as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it has tried over 17,000 cases, seizing 6,992,467 discs and 16,159 data files, leading to 3,812 arrests. TorrentFreak highlights that given Disney's sales alone are 16 times larger than major CODA members Toei, Toho, Shochiku and Kadokawa combined, the MPA's cooperation becomes indispensable. CODA's full list of members includes household names for anime/manga fans, such as Aniplex, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., Kodansha, Shueisha, Toei Animation, Bandai Co., Ltd. and many more. MPA members include the major Hollywood studios Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros. Recent efforts from CODA, the MPA and Chinese law enforcement saw landmark success with Japan's first-ever conviction of an overseas anime piracy site operator.

Much of the Anime Industry's Income Now Stems From International Sources

CODA and the MPA's renewal is especially important considering how much of the anime market derives from overseas income. The Anime Industry Report 2023 revealed that "Overseas" formed 49.8% of all income generated by the Japanese anime industry. MUSO's statistics also reveal that eight of the top 10 most pirated TV shows in the world were anime series, including the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia and Vinland Saga. America is also the world's worst offender of manga piracy, despite accounting for only 4% of the world's population.