Tsubata police station of Ishikawa prefecture, Japan, announced on Wednesday that they arrested a man who sold a pirated version of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. The man allegedly sold a pirated copy of the magazine’s issue that compiles the first chapter of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga and was arrested for copyright infringement.
According to the report, the 50-year-old man in April 2022, knowing that it was a pirated copy of the Weekly Shonen Jump 1984 #51 reproduced without the copyright owner’s permission, put the item for sale on an online auction and sold it for ¥180k (≒$1,237). The winning bidder, a 30-year-old man who lives in Ishikawa prefecture and owns the original product, realized the paper quality was different, which led him to report it to the police. The book was bound with glue. The suspect said he thought it was genuine and denied the allegation.
The official website of Weekly Shonen Jump updated on Tuesday with a notice titled “Notice – Weekly Shonen Jump 1984 #51 Issue Regarding Printed Pirated Copy” and announced that illegally reproduced copies of the issue are up for sale on online auctions and flea apps. The article points out that the original product was staple bound.
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Akira Toriyama serialized Dragon Ball manga from November 1984 to June 1995 with 42 compiled volumes. The series also published a complete version with 34 books and surpassed 260 million circulating copies worldwide. The manga-inspired anime adaptations including films and the latest film Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO premiered on June 11, 2022, in Japan.
The magazine is well known all over the world as it is the home of many popular shonen series, including One Piece, Black Clover, Naruto, Sakamoto Days. Hunter x Hunter, among others.
Source: Asashi Shimbun, Official Website (Shonen Jump)
Featured image: Shirobako, © SHIROBAKO Production Committee
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