Fighting against anime and manga piracy seems never-ending. Indeed, rights holders have become accustomed to obtaining the blocking and delisting of illegal portals. Except that other platforms reopen immediately. Japan now wants to use a new strategy by focusing on artificial intelligence. Explanations.
A new detection system
According to media information NHKthe Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs wants to spend 300 million yen, or about $2 million, to create an AI-powered piracy detection system.
The latter would thus be able to automatically find websites that distribute pirated content. The idea is also to streamline the entire process for rights holders who wish to have these broadcasts removed.
How does it work?
Concretely, the algorithm of this new tool would be trained with official content in order to identify illegal copies. This technology would also be able to analyze advertisements on pirate sites to detect counterfeits.
Commenting on this initiative, the Japanese authorities underline as follows:
Detecting hacked sites by the human eye has its limitations, as it is time-consuming and expensive. We want to develop effective countermeasures to reduce the number of pirated sites and protect rights holders.
The fact remains that this system is not ready to come into action. Screenrant underlines in this regard that its financing is subject to approval of the budget. It will therefore first be necessary for parliamentarians to agree, then a period of time to ensure its development. We will therefore see in use if this method bears fruit.
A global problem
If Japan is trying everything for everything on this issue, it is also because the piracy of manga and anime costs 2,000 billion yen each year, or a little more than 13 billion dollars for the companies concerned.
It is also a global phenomenon. Our colleagues News recall this figure provided by the ABJ (Authorized Books of Japan) label. According to the latter, “among the 1,200 pirated sites identified in February 2024, only 24% were in Japanese, while 38% were in English, 14% in Vietnamese and 6% in Chinese”.
What to remember:
- Japan wants to launch a new system to detect anime and manga piracy
- This tool would benefit from the latest advances in AI
- It will be some time before it can be launched
