Shueisha, the publishing house behind Shonen Jump, has issued a press release following the arrest of two suspected leakers in Japan.
Spoilers on the Internet have always abounded, but a practice has become more and more common with social networks and the democratization of manga and anime outside of Japan: these are leaks, orchestrated by professional leakers, allowing view chapters in advance.
Both a nuisance for those who don’t want to spoil the surprise, and a blessing for those who on the contrary don’t know how to wait, manga leaks have created a big place for themselves in the industry – at its expense.
At the beginning of February, some of these well-known “leakers” were arrested in Japan. Suspected of having infringed the rights of the authors of big franchises such as One Piece or Jujutsu Kaisen, they allegedly bought pages of the Shonen Jump magazine in advance from wholesalers, to be able to scan them and publish them on the Internet.
Following the arrest, numerous publications stirred up social networks: first the police’s seizure of the accused’s material, then the strong reactions from the community of readers… in the midst of this tumult, Shueisha has in its given turn of voice, in a press release supposed to put things straight.
Shonen Jump publisher reacts to manga leaks
On February 5, 2024, Shueisha released a statement discussing the arrests, and also shared concerns about the leaks’ negative impact on the manga industry.
The press release, translated from Japanese to English on the ComicBook website, states: “On February 4, 2024, a business director of a company in Tokyo and others were arrested by the Joint Investigation Headquarters of the Kumamoto and Niigata Prefectural Police on suspicion of violating the Copyright Law. The suspects are suspected of obtaining and scanning our publication ‘Weekly Shonen Jump’ before its release date and uploading it to a pirate site without permission, and an investigation into the source of the ‘ahead’ leak is currently underway. in progress.”
Once the facts are laid out, the press release further explains the harmful impacts of such practices on the manga industry: “The illegal downloading of manga magazines before their official release date, known as ‘advance bulletins,’ spreads via social media and other means, thereby depriving readers of the pleasure they expect from the magazine. The author is also very affected by this, and we take this serious problem very seriously. Therefore, we consider the arrest of the suspects a big step towards solving the problem, and we hope that further investigation into the sources of the leak will lead to deterrence from future damage.”
“Shueisha will continue to take every possible measure to protect the rights of its authors and their works, which they have put their heart and soul into, and to ensure that readers can enjoy the manga appropriately.”
If manga leaks like Jujutsu Kaisen or One Piece are generally seen as a scourge, some Internet users can’t help but worry about the leakers they follow assiduously. At this point, most of them have either deleted their accounts or deleted the incriminating images.
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