{"id":731120,"date":"2026-01-30T15:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/731120\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T15:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:46:19","slug":"one-of-the-biggest-manga-piracy-networks-has-been-shut-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/731120\/","title":{"rendered":"One of the biggest manga piracy networks has been shut down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Japan\u2019s anti-piracy coalition says that one of the world\u2019s largest manga piracy networks has been shut down following a coordinated investigation between Japanese publishers and Chinese authorities. The <a href=\"https:\/\/coda-cj.jp\/en\/news\/830\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Content Overseas Distribution Association<\/a> (CODA) announced the arrest of an individual on suspicion of copyright infringement on November 19th, who \u201chas admitted to operating\u201d Bato.to and approximately 60 related sites, such as xbato.com and mangapark.io.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Bato.to launched in 2014, growing to be one of the most recognizable online platforms for \u201cscanalation\u201d \u2014 in which manga, manhwa, and other comics are scanned, edited with translated text, and then distributed by online user communities. CODA reports that the 60 shuttered sites recorded a combined 350 million visits in May 2025 alone, with Bato.to making more than 400,000 yuan (around $57,000) in advertising revenue during peak months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Bato.to\u2019s operator has since been released on bail and is expected to be formally indicted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s anti-piracy coalition says that one of the world\u2019s largest manga piracy networks has been shut down following&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,6899,1192,77,2725,12,46,326,16,15],"class_list":["post-731120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-comics","tag-creators","tag-entertainment","tag-law","tag-news","tag-policy","tag-tech","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115984831873923795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}