Hollywood Joins Fight Against Anime Piracy

Following legal action taken in September that targeted 248 domains, a group of studios and online streamers have teamed up to launch fresh legal action against piracy platform VidSrc.

VidSrc powers many piracy sites and represents a "core" platform that, if taken out, would severely limit piracy sites in simply starting under a new domain. The initial action blocked 248 domains and, more importantly, compelled registrars globally to suspend them.

Reported by TorrentFreak, this new global injunction has been taken out by the following plaintiffs in an Indian court:

• Universal City Studios Productions LLLP (United States)
• Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (United States)
• Netflix US, LLC (United States)
• Disney Enterprises Inc. (United States)
• Apple Video Programming LLC (United States)
• Crunchyroll, LLC (United States)
• SBS Co. Ltd. (Republic of Korea)
• CJ ENM Co. Ltd (Republic of Korea)
• SLL Joongang Co. Ltd. (Republic of Korea)

With the global anime industry worth over $25 billion in 2024 according to The Hollywood Reporter, and projected to hit $72 billion by 2032, it's clear that the big studios are moving hard to protect the value of their market. More than 50% of anime revenues were accrued overseas last year, which explains why Hollywood studios are now throwing their weight behind the legal action.

The reason to avoid legal action in the US is essentially to prevent two outcomes - a weak block on said domains, or a result so successful that it might scupper the need for new legislation, which all the above are in favour of to protect their interests. By using a court in India, they can achieve the same outcome without risking loss of support for a new legal framework.

Most of the targeted domains in the new action revolve around VidSrc (see the original article for a list if interested).

As a countermeasure, VidSrc moved many domains to Russia, which makes the cooperation of domain registrars much harder to enforce. 

Pro-piracy camps point to the mass deletion of anime series on streaming platforms as well as the temporary nature of licenses afforded to them as reasons to download. However, with anime so much more prevalent and easier to find than ever before, this argument is getting weaker (though not without any merit given the vast swathes of titles lost when Crunchyroll merged with Funimation).

That's why we're always in favour of physical purchases wherever possible!