Summary

Digital piracy is one of the main concerns of the anime and manga industries today, but many websites are taking major blows due to cooperative efforts betweenJapanese anti-piracy group CODA, companies, and governments around the world. While it is true that Japanese players have been more aggressive in trying to counter piracy, it’s also true that many people still read or watch series likeOne Pieceon unlicensed platforms.

The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) was established in 2002, but it grew stronger in 2013 after merging with the Anti-Counterfeiting Association (ACA). According to its official website, CODA’s true goal is to promote Japanese content internationally, and this mission includes fighting against piracy and raising awareness about copyright laws. Members of this association include major companies such as Aniplex, Kadokawa, Shogakukan Shueisha, Studio Ghibli, and Toei, among many others. In 2022, CODA established an international coalition with major players like the Motion Picture Association, called the International Anti-Piracy Organization (IAPO), to strengthen joint efforts to fight digital piracy.

Actions Taken by CODA in Recent Years

CODAfrequently sends takedown notices to many websites and social media platforms asking for the removal of unlicensed content. Every year, the association releases a report about its actions, which includes the response of platforms and websites to takedown notices. Between April 2024 and March 2025, CODA filed a total of 677,269 removal requests (most were human-generated), and in 545,870 cases the platforms deleted the specified URL, which means a rate of 80.6% compliance.

We work to promote the overseas development of Japanese content, including music, films, animation, TV programs, and video games, and to fight against piracy. At the same time, we are engaged in various public relations and educational activities related to content distribution to protect the value and aspirations of Japanese content.

— CODA website

Surprisingly, the most notified platform was not a piracy website but a social media platform, Facebook, with 176,610 notifications, followed by video hosting websites MP4upload and Streamtape (116,563 and 75,789 notifications). The latter two are also the most compliant websites, taking down all the URLs requested, which is interesting since they are generally considered piracy platforms by a good number of people. Facebook and other social media platforms, like YouTube, BilibiliTV, and TikTok, also had over a 90% compliance rate—BilibiliTV and TikTok took down over 99% of the requests, while Facebook took down 93.97% and YouTube, 97.84%. On the other end, Dramacool, Videokvid, and9anime didn’t comply with anyof the requests. These three websites are not operating anymore after suffering major copyright pressures.

Besides sending notices, the association also works with governments to dismantle piracy groups. Since January, they’ve worked with Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan to stop piracy, with over 3,000 arrests. Other actions included working with Brazilian forces to shut down numerous websites.

MangaDex Suffered Massive DMCA Takedown Notices

Recently,MangaDex also had to removecontent from over 2,000 series after massive DMCA takedown notices. It seems CODA was not related to this action, since they have not added it to their website. Many of the notices were issued by Comeso, a German company that offers anti-piracy services, representing several different Japanese publishers. MangaDex complied with the notices, but it took the manga community by surprise since the website is known for its profit-free approach.

There is no public information regarding where MangaDex’s servers are based. According toDomainTools, the servers' IPs are based in Indonesia, but everything about the owner and other people in charge is protected. Many piracy websites are registered in countries with laxer copyright laws or enforcement so they wouldn’t need to comply with DMCA takedowns, which is American law, butthey might suffer major consequencesfor not doing so, especially if there are people based in the US working for the platform (including in voluntary moderation roles). This is probably the reason why MangaDex complied instead of ignoring the takedown notices.