What You Need to Know:
- In Japan, a lot of content is distributed on a daily basis, whether it be electronics, appliances, or in this case manga. Manga is perhaps one of the biggest at the moment since there are constant volumes being released to ensure that fans get their source of entertainment. However, due to the increasing popularity of these manga, a lot of fans just don't have the time or perhaps the money to purchase all of the volumes that release in such a large influx.
- The Diet officially made a decision that they needed to tighten control around the anti-online piracy law and so this will begin to take affect as of Jan 1, next year. Leeching websites, which are essentially websites that provide hyperlinks to download various types of content via torrent-files, will see a ban take affect Oct 1.
- This ban will be a massive breath of fresh air for publishers, since they can make the deserved revenue from sales. Piracy website Mangamura was the main culprit behind a lot of lost sales, amounting up to ¥300 billion ($2.75 billion).
- The major penalities for this offense will be up to 2 years in jail, or a maximum fine of ¥2 million, or in the most worst case both. Those operating leech websites will face a much more powerful fine, which is ¥5 million or 5 years in jail, or both.
- While this certainly will help to ease a lot of the losses, there are of course loopholes that people can take, but we can only hope that Japan's government can figure out ways to eliminate those as well.
It's about damn time they cracked down on those thieves! They're creating problems for everyone!
Good riddance!