Waves of Anime Pirating Websites SHUT DOWN

Anime piracy has had a longstanding history and is often cited as one of the primary sources for anime consumption internationally.

Another wave hits famous websites, especially Aniwave, which released a farewell message

Hi,

You know, it has been a long journey since Aniwave (9Anime) first appeared. Creating better products that provide an improved user experience and fostering competition to drive the market to enhance products is something we are very happy about. Now that everything has improved… it is also time for us to say goodbye. It is difficult to part with something we have invested so much effort and passion into, but it is something we need to do. Thank you for standing by and supporting us throughout this timer
Every game must have an end…and life Is about experiences. Every mistake teaches us lessons that help us grow.
If possible, please use legal paid services. It’s something we should do to show our respect for creators and content producers.
Good bye!

i remember aniwave before aniwave it was 9anime. i remember seeing them remake it to aniwave and they changed it from purple 9anime to blue aniwave. and then switched it back to purple. its been a good run pic.twitter.com/ij6EtZUZhf

— Kunai (@llKunaill) August 27, 2024

The following websites have been shutdown as of today, August 27:

• 2flix
• animesuge
• aniwave
• anix
• cinezone
• fboxz
• filmoflix
• flix2day
• mov2day
• papadustream
• theflixtor
• vidsrc2
• zoroxtv

The news has caused a stir in the online community. While piracy has a negative reputation in the creative industry due to its impact on creators’ profits, online piracy of anime has also preserved some older and obscure anime not available on mainstream platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, or Crunchyroll.

Aniwave shutting down is my 9/11.
The only site that had every random old anime imaginable. Corporate greed kills preservation of media. pic.twitter.com/JouZE9f1Gl

— NewAgeWeeb (@NewAgeWeeb_) August 27, 2024

A Reddit post also identifies multiple other actors that have driven the intensity of the shutdown of piracy websites, not just anime, such as the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and Webtoon Entertainment. In particular, the post mentions Webtoon Entertainment’s motivation for the crackdown: the dissatisfaction of investors early in the year due to lower profits. These groups and more have taken legal action through the Texas Federal Court to curb the piracy efforts.

The Redditor highlights, however, the suspicious nature of these shutdowns, as the Aniwave message is similar to others that they have seen.

Since 2017, recent laws in Japan have been made and strengthened to combat online piracy, resulting in scores of anime websites being shut down in larger numbers, and this has not stopped since.

These moves have been motivated by PwC’s 2023 study for the Tokyo-based anti-piracy trade group Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) that revealed that Japanese media companies, from manga publishers and anime distributors to video game companies, have lost an estimated 1.95 trillion yen (16 billion US dollars) to 2.20 trillion yen (18 billion US dollars) due to pirated content being circulated online, an alarming increase from the 333.3 billion yen to 430 billion yen loss in 2021. CODA has 32 Japanese corporate members, including manga publisher Shueisha and anime producers Aniplex and Toei.

Source: Twitter and Reddit