18 Year Old Boy Arrested For Sharing 3,800 Manga Scans via MegaUpload

by dtshyk
Feb 8, 2011 5:27 AM | 82 Comments

According to Association of Copyright for Computer Software (ACCS), a 18 year old student was arrested for uploading manga scans to an online storage MEGAUPLOAD. He had been running a private blog "Manga.jp" and sharing the scans with a total of 2.5 million people. There were 3,800 files of 260 titles available on the blog. The uploaded manga include One Piece, Nurarihyon no Mago, Eden no Ori, and Sket Dance.

Picture of the seized PCs and disc media from the student

He collected the manga scans from other online sharing sites and has earned 300,000 yen ($1 = 83 yen) through Amazon Associate program since March 2010.

Sources: ACCS, IT Media

20 of 82 Comments Recent Comments

yeah..... so young and stupid. should've been smart about and used fileserve.. lol. jk. poor guy.... jail sucks. T_T

Feb 13, 2011 5:26 PM by DevMotives

3500$ in one year is certainly not enough to live from, so for me thats not large-scale commercial copyright infringement by far. I bet he needed considerable arts of that money to host the files anyway.
Also, police forces of the world, how about you fucking stop seizing people's PC's and only take their hard drives? Because there is nothing illegal on the other components and taking them as well is just disproportionate!

Feb 13, 2011 11:55 AM by reachupwards

thank you for sharing but I feel bad for him (even though he made money with)

Feb 9, 2011 1:46 PM by Kurini

hirorient said:
this phenomenon is a natural consequence. i'm not talking about 18 y/o boy's arrest.
mangas are originally made for japanese readers. and publishers basically don't care about overseas markets.
it seems japanese gov started something so-called "cool japan" program to appeal manga and anime.
um, it's too late. there are already many fans around the world.
due to the lack of availability, scanlation, translation, funsub, etc.. these stuffs happens voluntary.
japanese publishers should have made something like itunes store to buy manga.

They did.
It tanked hardcore.

Feb 9, 2011 12:28 PM by Sabinlerose

Of course he's a boy! He's still in school, and has 2 years left until he's considered an adult (plus the articles refer to him as a 男子 and a 少年, which both mean boy)

He obviously never intended on going to university, or else he wouldn't have the time to upload so much stuff >_<

Feb 9, 2011 11:41 AM by Pheefa

He sure did have a lot of time on his hands to upload that many...

Feb 9, 2011 10:50 AM by soulless4now

this phenomenon is a natural consequence. i'm not talking about 18 y/o boy's arrest.
mangas are originally made for japanese readers. and publishers basically don't care about overseas markets.
it seems japanese gov started something so-called "cool japan" program to appeal manga and anime.
um, it's too late. there are already many fans around the world.
due to the lack of availability, scanlation, translation, funsub, etc.. these stuffs happens voluntary.
japanese publishers should have made something like itunes store to buy manga.

Feb 9, 2011 8:48 AM by kusushi

I wonder how many year he will get in jail.

Feb 9, 2011 7:08 AM by Hellobee

He was making money out of it, so obviously he's guilty.

Feb 9, 2011 1:38 AM by AlexSadist-sama

oh well, there is still hundreds of sites like that ~

Feb 9, 2011 1:17 AM by Ame_Sama

If you don't want "boy". Teenager will do.

Feb 8, 2011 10:48 PM by Cashdax

Highbrand said:

bicklebopper said:

zimno said:

3800 / 19days = 200comics per day

At least the kid has dedication.

On this subject, I am confused by the wording... are these 3800 individual pages or chapters? I'm assuming the former (common sense and all...) but since I can't read the source, I figured I should ask.

冊＝book form
3800冊 = 3800 books

Feb 8, 2011 8:04 PM by zimno

bk-201 said:

ph4zr said:
Firstly, it doesn't say he charged for it, but rather that he made that much through the Amazon affiliate program. I.e. through referrals to amazon, or something similar (I'm not familiar w/ their program). It's really not that different from what they'd say about a torrent site accepting donations to pay server costs, or any site with ads. They'd still consider that profit, most likely.

Secondly, it says "files" from 260 titles, They could be counting images, zips/rars/etc., a combination, backups, and so forth. Since it's counting the blog, though, my bets on packages, although if he posted previews or full sets it'd be the same. Heck, thumbnails probably count.

Exactly. He didn't charge anyone for the manga, contrary to what a few people here believe. The Amazon associates thing works like ads, he only got money if say someone bought something by clicking on an Amazon ad he was hosting on his blog.

And yeah,that figure of 260 'files' is vague, could account for a lot of things.

Hmm...I was thinking the same thing. It's not a case where he was charging people for the scans but probably just from people clicking on ads etc. I feel it for the guy but couldn't he have used a more discreet site name? 'manga.jp' was just waiting to be caught.

Feb 8, 2011 7:21 PM by arhazivory

I wonder how much of this will actually stick due to the fact that his site wasn't actually hosting the content, it'll be interesting to see.

Feb 8, 2011 6:59 PM by Bostonblows

Feb 8, 2011 6:53 PM by bk-201

I feel sorry for him.. but he should have atleast done it for free...

Feb 8, 2011 6:35 PM by ImNotLulexiaa

Miss-Looolz said:
my hero =]
actually it's sad that they arrested him (even if he's taking any money) what he did is great .. 'cause there are a lot of countried don't have any bookstore ththat sells manga .. so e internet is our only way =

especially for manga that would otherwise never see their way out of japan

Feb 8, 2011 6:16 PM by renjikuchiki1

tehnominator said:
If he's 18, he's not a "boy" so this news title is clearly sensationalist and incorrect.

Aren't you not considered an adult until the age of 20 in Japan?

Either way, the title is quite misleading. He's clearly old enough to know better, and shouldn't be referred to as a "boy".

Feb 8, 2011 5:47 PM by 11223344

he made profit on that blog..

Feb 8, 2011 5:03 PM by etchel

He was an hero to me. Srs.

Not surprised that he got arrested though. D: Bound to happen if you share that many titles <_<,>_>.

Feb 8, 2011 4:35 PM by mister_deaf

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