TOKYO: Four major publishing companies in Japan sued US internet infrastructure company Cloudflare Inc. on Tuesday, alleging that its services are infringing their copyrights by helping distribute pirated manga.

Kodansha Ltd., Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc. and Kadokawa Corp. filed the lawsuit with Tokyo District Court against the San Francisco-based company in seeking an injunction against the services and a total of 460 million yen in damages, Kodansha announced.

According to the announcement, Cloudflare offers a content delivery network service allowing manga piracy websites to distribute their content to online viewers via the network.

Several pirate websites have contracts with Cloudflare, delivering some 4,000 manga titles, including “Attack on Titan” and “One Piece.” One website is said to have as many as 300 million views a month.

It is believed to be the first manga piracy lawsuit filed by a Japanese publisher against a content delivery network service operator.

Cloudflare has continued to distribute pirated manga despite the four publishers’ protest since April 2020, according to the announcement.

JIJI Press