The Osaka District Court awarded Kodansha its claim for 160 million yen (about US$1.47 million) against three site administrators of the “Haruka Yume no Ato” manga “leech site” on Tuesday.
The Mainichi Shimbun reported in October 2018 that Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs intends to ban leech sites through revisions of the Copyright Act this year.
The three administrators of the site already received guilty sentences for copyright infringement in January, and the Court denied their appeal on November 1.
In the same month, the government asked internet service providers to voluntarily block websites that host pirated content.