KissAnime and KissManga are the first two casualties of Japan's stricter anti-online piracy law

Popular piracy websites KissAnime and KissManga have been shutdown permanently as Japan’s stricter copyright control begins its crackdown against those who illegally upload manga, magazines, and academic texts.

The news about the closure first appeared on reddit, which claimed that the illegal anime website was taken down “between 10:00 PM and 10:20 PST on August 14, 2020.”

A supposed Discord message by the KissAnime support team later confirmed that the site will permanently cease its operations.  “All files are taken down by copyright owners. KissManga and KissAnime will be closed forever. Thank you for your supports. Thank you for those years.”

Kyodo News earlier reported that Japan has enacted a revised anti-online piracy law in a bid to eradicate the growing number of websites that contain a wide selection of pirated anime and manga titles. The revised anti-online piracy law will reportedly begin on January 1, 2021 while restrictions on leech websites will take effect on October 1.

Repeat offenders of illegal downloading will reportedly face up to two years of imprisonment or a maximum fine of 2 million yen ($18,320), or both. As for those who will be caught operating a leech website, they will face penalties which include imprisonment for five years or a maximum fine of five million yen, or both.

In 2018, publishers reportedly lost more than 300 billion yen or $2.75 billion to a piracy website called Mangamura which racked up over 100 million monthly views. Among the popular manga titles that the website hosted were One Piece and Attack on Titan.

(Image courtesy of IMDB)