Tokyo District Court orders Cloudflare to pay damages over pirated website
4 days ago
- #CDN-regulation
- #piracy-legal-battle
- #copyright-infringement
- Four major Japanese publishers (KADOKAWA, Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Kodansha) sued US IT giant Cloudflare for copyright infringement related to unauthorized distribution of manga on pirate sites.
- The Tokyo District Court ordered Cloudflare to pay 500 million yen in damages, ruling that its CDN services facilitated illegal content distribution.
- Pirate sites using Cloudflare's services allegedly distributed 40,000 manga titles, including popular series like 'ONE PIECE' and 'Attack on Titan,' with peak monthly access exceeding 300 million.
- The legal dispute centered on whether CDN providers share liability for copyright infringement by pirate sites using their services.
- Publishers argued Cloudflare failed to take necessary actions (like terminating services) after DMCA takedown notices, while Cloudflare maintained it merely facilitated data transfer and had no direct control.
- CDN services optimize high-volume content delivery via edge servers but have faced criticism for enabling pirate sites—especially Cloudflare’s free tier, which requires only an email for access.
- Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs recommended in 2022 that CDN providers implement measures to block pirate site usage.