The Osaka District Court handed down a guilty verdict to three site administrators of the “Haruka Yume no Ato” “leech site” accused of copyright infringement on Thursday.
The same month, the government asked internet service providers to voluntarily block websites that hosted pirated content.
The Mainichi Shimbun reported last April that the Japanese government was planning to submit a bill to the Diet to restrict leech sites.
In October 2017, nine prefectural police departments in Japan worked together and arrested nine suspects for violating the Copyright Act with the website “Haruka Yume no Ato”, one of the largest leech sites (sites that aggregate and provide hyperlinks to pirated media) in Japan.