Starting next month, the Japanese government will start a huge extermination operation against foreign sites which have illegally uploaded anime and manga contents on the web without the copyright holders' permission.

For more information about this matter, visit this link
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1235745

So guys, what are your opinion?

Well they're trying and it is 100% within their right to try.

If some popular streaming or manga aggregator sites disappear because of this I won't really miss them. Other than that I don't see much being achieved :T

Good thing they didnt mEntion hentai.XD

Fuck hentai.No more naruto and one piece :(

Unless they get permission from the US Government to take down a us hosted site, hosting dubbed anime, they can't do shit outside of their own government.

Since it's more so up to the studio that had the dubbing rights, to take down those sites.

Yeah in general with sites that are hosted in other countries (as in most if not all of them) I don't think they can really do anything other than ask, unless they get the countries in question to support them with some legal action.

>>5 "On August 1st, the government will start simultaneously sending requests to delete illegal anime and manga contents to the operators of the 580 foreign pirate sites which they have found."

As far as I can tell, all they are doing is asking nicely. As one commenter said...

>Requests?
>
>Japan: "Please delete our stuff from your site."
>Site: "Nope."
>-end

I hope this doesn't affect sites like KissAnime. I wouldn't know where else to watch my anime if it was taken off the web. and it not like I have tons of money to support my habit either. :(

It's good their doing that. Their are legal sites to watch anime, so their's no need for illegal sites. But then alot of people cant afford the legal sites, so... It;s kind of a grey area. But the people who made that specefic anime deserve the money.

well, Japan has right to do that. It might improve the sales of manga to foreign countries but i don't think it will help them improve sell of anime goods because there are only limited amount of new anime shows that aired on foreign TV networks. People won't buy anime goods that they don't know what it is.

I'm terribly happy that they're not touching Anilinkz, though some of their streaming sources are getting trampled on. Hopefully not too many videos will be broken.

All in all though, this is just a stupid idea. The anime and manga industries wouldn't be anywhere near as big as they are without the exposure that comes from free releases. Most of us outside of Japan would have only a vague idea of what it even is without free access to it. Not to mention that I know myself and others, who would have never known what anime was otherwise, found themselves purchasing hard copies of the releases that they enjoyed free. Does everyone do it? Of course not. Probably less than .01% of foreign fans do, but that's still .01% more profit than they would have made without it.

Not to mention that there are so few international releases. How can someone who speaks another language enjoy what you've made if you don't provide an official translation and then slander the unofficial translator groups? If you want to keep it as a major export, then export with such earnest effort that it backs up that claim.

"Actually the key is to convince people to buy original content, rather than trying to ban it.

When has restriction worked, actually? Game companies tried it with DRM and what happened? Pirated games were more desirable thanks to it being DRM-free.

America tried to ban Alcohol during the 1920s and what happened? It didn't solve anything because bootleggers made moonshine and the American mafia gangs supplied the demand for alcohol, giving them a source of revenue.

Australia tried to ban online viewing of pornography and what happened? A 10 year old breached the nation-wide firewall in record time.

So yeah, instead of banning it, ultimately resulting in a waste of time and resources since M.A.G. will ultimately fail in the end because people will -always- bypass restrictions, Japan should just try to make anime shows more accessible while making a profit."

A comment on the situation I think I agree with.

I believe it wouldn't happen

It's really not that big of a deal. As been done before, these are mainly requests for said sites to be shut down, and many requests have been ignored for the most part so far, depending on the country the site is hosted in. Sure, some sites may go down, but a large majority of them will likely still be up. Hell, even if a lot of them do go down, there's always several measures for people to continue doing as they have been.

I.e. XDCC, or sites simply moving their address to a country with more lenient internet laws. (For example Sweeden, or China, the latter of which gives little to no fucks about Japan in the first place concerning legal sanctions.)

For some reason companies still believe in the whole "1 download of our product means 1 lost sale", which is absolutely idiotic to believe in the first place. Again, I really doubt much of anything will happen, there's really not much cause for worry, if any.

>>14 and 16 I agree completely. I personally believe doing this will actually only hinder the selling and support of such anime and manga series. A good example is myself, as half the series that I have come to know and love, I wouldn't have even found had it not been for sites like animeseason, manga-access, and etc. I donate to series that I like, buy some products, the regular deal. However I am pretty sure I wouldn't have found most of the series if I went to a more mainstream site. But getting that aside, I believe most of these sites only benefit most series that are presented in anime and manga, as most could go under the radar of the more popular series being widely shown. Added to that, what is the government's concern of it? Does anime and manga really bring in that much revenue? I don't live in japan nor keep up with its economy, but I really don't think so. Its much similar to paying certain show channels just to watch some shows. I mean, they have the right to act on it, but.. Again I just don't see the sense in it. I really do hope it doesn't pan out.

I kinda view it as a it is what it is situation. I'm not like offended by them doing it. I mean technically we ARE supposed to buy the mangas or animes to support the creators. So I can't really say what I've been doing is right. It was just easy and uhh practical for me? It will still suck of course since I don't have much of an income to be able to purchase manga and such. I'll just have to try harder to get a reliable job.

Of course this will never stop piracy completely but it will make it a slightly more challenging feat for people who aren't dedicated enough to look harder. To be honest I'm really shocked we got away with it this easily for so long.

One huge downside will be that taking these sites down is sorta like cutting advertising. Half the series I'm into I only was able to because they were easily available for free online. And I have financially support the series I did enjoy and I plan to keep doing so as I get more money.

Grey situation..

All i can think is, 'NOOOOOOOO"!!!! i mean, i probs use those sites without knowing all the time.