TOKYO: Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered the former operator of a now-closed manga piracy website called Mangamura to pay three major Japanese publishers a total of about 1.73 billion yen in damages.

In the lawsuit, the publishers — Kadokawa Corp., Shueisha Inc. and Shogakukan Inc. — claimed that the website had uploaded popular manga titles without permission, and demanded some 1.93 billion yen in damages.

According to the ruling and other sources, Mangamura was said to be the largest piracy website in Japan, attracting nearly 100 million visits per month. It is estimated to have caused damage of about 320 billion yen.

The former Mangamura operator has been found guilty of violating the copyright law and other crimes and is currently seeking a retrial.

In the damages suit, the court, presided over by judge Masaki Sugiura, found that the former operator posted image data of 17 titles, including “Sgt. Frog,” “One Piece” and “Yawara!,” without obtaining permission from the three publishers.

The court rejected the defendant’s claim that some of the acts were not problematic under the copyright law at the time, and concluded that the rights of the three companies had been violated.

“I’m not satisfied with the ruling,” the former operator told reporters. “They can’t take money from me as I have no assets, so the lawsuit was theatrical.”

The plaintiffs also held a press conference. “The lawsuit served as an important deterrent against copyright infringement and provided an opportunity to widely raise awareness of the piracy issue,” said Atsushi Ito, a senior official of Shueisha.

The publishers will also step up efforts to combat foreign piracy websites, Ito indicated.

JIJI Press