Major manga scanlation site MangaDex has been hit with a large-scale series of DMCA takedown notices from companies enforcing their copyrights, resulting in an estimated 700+ series removed in select languages. These companies have also filed DMCA takedowns with Google to reduce visibility. This is available publicly and, in just the last two days, includes Kakao, Naver, Lezhin, Suiseisha, Kodansha, Houbunsha, WEBTOON, One Peace Books, Toomics, NTT Solmare, Square Enix, Ridi Corp.’s Manta, Alphapolis, Shinchosha, Toyou’s Dream, Shogakukan, WWWave Corporation, Mag Garden, and Bunkasha.
You can check out the list of titles removed in select languages as it updates (via Reddit). Notable titles include My Dress-Up Darling, Oshi no Ko, The Quintessential Quintuplets, The Apothecary Diaries (both versions), Black Lagoon, Bleach, Blue Box, Dragon Ball, Golden Kamuy, Heavenly Delusion, Solo Leveling, Tensura, and The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. The above titles are all licensed and readily accessible in some languages, including English. Many have reported that unlicensed titles are also part of the takedowns.
A MangaDex forum super moderator responded to the confusion, calling it “the first time a takedown has happened on this scale.” This came days after MangaDex announced a policy change to clamp down on translation groups “excessive[ly] profiteering” from infringing content. When asked whether the large number of recent manga deletions was linked, the moderator replied:
“It is unrelated. We have received a dmca request for those chapters.
Note that this is the first time a takedown happened on this scale. Before it was just singular manga on the direct request of the author, or Naver because they’re scary.
The chapter listings (a v3 feature where you can see the chapter but can’t access the images) will return asap with the unavailable v3 feature. So for the users that use chapter read markers for tracking (please don’t), don’t worry your markers will return.
The users that want a list of what has been taken down will have to wait for said feature too.“
This also comes days after Reaper Scans announced its shutdown after receiving a Cease & Desist notice from Kakao Entertainment. Reaper Scans amassed over 36 million visits over the last three months (via Similarweb data). The disruption to MangaDex promises to be even more extreme, pulling 68.8 million visits in April alone. It’s amassed 188.5 million over the last three months.
MangaDex is a manga scanlation site where users can upload fan translations of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and other Asian-origin comics. Official translations are banned by the site’s rules. It has garnered controversy due to the inherent copyright infringement of the site, as well as being open to third-party uploaders that paywall content and post early releases.
Source: MangaDex
Featured image ©Hajime Isayama, Kodansha/”ATTACK ON TITAN” The Final Season Production Committee
Participate In Discussions