Advanced Television

CODA shutters Brazil anime piracy site

December 30, 2024

By Colin Mann

Japan has scored another major win in its ongoing and collaborative efforts to curb anime piracy, with anti-piracy body CODA (Content Overseas Distribution Association) recently claiming victory over one of the biggest anime pirate websites in Brazil.

Earlier in December 2024, CODA announced it was responsible for shutting down the anime piracy website rine.cloud. After confirming how Toei Animation, Toho and Bandai Namco Filmworks wanted to proceed, CODA successfully negotiated with rine.cloud to end all operations; the site now redirects to CODA’s shutdown page.

At its time of closing, rine.cloud was Brazil’s seventh-largest anime piracy site, with approximately 2.74 million monthly average visits from September to November 2024.

CODA conducted a ‘knock-and-talk’ (direct negotiation) operation. Earlier in December 2024, CODA conducted a similar knock-and-talk operation in São Paulo, confirming the closure of a total of 15 piracy websites. This recent closure was also achieved through a joint enforcement effort.

CODA employs four countermeasures against piracy websites as part of its joint enforcement efforts: criminal prosecution, civil lawsuits, administrative penalties (applicable to countries such as China and Vietnam), and knock-and-talk (direct negotiation). Depending on the circumstances of each case, CODA selects the most appropriate measure. In cases where criminal prosecution in the operator’s residing country may take time, knock-and-talk is chosen as a practical solution after a comprehensive consideration of factors such as the scale of damages and the urgency of the situation. The knock-and-talk approach was deemed the most appropriate and effective measure for resolving this case.

The website’s monthly average number of visits over the past three months (September–November 2024) reached approximately 2.74 million. CODA has also obtained voluntary submission (transfer) of the site’s domain. Currently, access to the site is redirected to a page managed by CODA, notifying users of its closure.

CODA emphasises the importance of fostering a global mindset of “not using piracy websites” to prevent copyright infringement activities from being further encouraged by advertising revenue, even overseas. The act of infringing on content created through the time, effort, and resources of creators to generate unjust advertising income is highly malicious and cannot be tolerated.

CODA says it will continue to ensure the proper protection of copyrights and implement effective countermeasures against piracy websites. This activity was conducted as part of a project commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.

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