In the last year, pirate anime websites have been taken down by copyright lawsuits from well-known studios. Platforms like AnimeFenix , Anitaku , and GogoAnime have shut down, while legal services like Crunchyroll and Disney+ continue to grow with the popularity of anime.
However, just like the Hydra metaphor, " cut off one head and two more will grow ." According to a new report, an anime piracy website has been achieving impressive numbers, even surpassing streaming giants like Disney+ and Crunchyroll.
According to the Torrent Freak , the website “HiAnime” received over 330 million visitors in November of last year. These numbers place the site ahead of platforms like Disney+ and Crunchyroll in online traffic, although it still lags behind services like Hulu. It's worth noting that this data does not include usage on TVs and video game consoles, which represent a significant portion of the audiences for legal platforms.
Japan's fight against piracy using AI:
Last December, Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs allocated $2 million to combat digital piracy. Using artificial intelligence, the agency revealed that piracy in the anime and manga world causes estimated annual losses of $133.8 million . In an official statement, the agency declared:
There are limitations to manually locating pirate sites, as this is time-consuming and costly. We want to develop effective countermeasures to reduce pirate sites and protect rights holders
US government involvement in anime pirate websites:
In October, the US government added “HiAnime” to its list of “notorious piracy marketplaces.” Despite this, the site is still operational at the time of this publication.
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