News

Manga Artists File Lawsuit Against Manga Download Site

On March 14th, a group of 11 manga creators filed a lawsuit with the district court in Tokyo against a webpage hosting company and two people involved with a website that the suit alleges "distributed works (manga) on the website without permission." The creators, who include Devilman creator Nagai Go and Golgo 13 creator Saitou Takao, are seeking 22 million yen (approximately 20 million US Dollars) in damages.

According to the complaint filed, the two people who made the website scanned in volumes of Devilman and other works and distributed them from their webpage between September 2005 and January 2006 when, as the complaint alleges, the site received around 100,000 hits a day. In 2006, the website creators were also taken to court in Fukuoka Prefecture and were found guilty. The site is currently not distributing manga. In a statement made through a team of lawyers, Nagai Go has said that "Our works are our children. Don't just kidnap them and use them without asking."

Besides Nagai Go and Saitou Takao, the other manga creators listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit include:

Inoue Takehiko (Slam Dunk, Vagabond)
Uoto Osamu (Ninja JaJa Marukun)
Kitami Kenichi (Tsuri Baka Nisshi)
Kurashina Ryo
Chiba Tetsuya (Tommorrow's Joe/Ashita no Joe)
Hara Tetsuo (Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken)
Hojo Tsukasa (City Hunter)
Murakami Motoka (Musashi no Ken)
Motomira Hiroshi (Salaryman Kintaro)

Source: Mainichi Shinbun

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We previously stated that 22 million yen was approximately US$20 million. This was incorrect; it is approximately US$190,000. ANN apologizes for the error.