Doraemon and Dragon Ball DVD Pirates Arrested In Japan

Date: 2004 October 10 09:39

Posted by Joe

According to the Mainichi Daily News 5 people in Japan have been arrested for selling pirate anime DVDs using on-line auction sites. One family of pirates were attempting to sell 4,500 copies of Doraemon netting around 6.2 million yen. The pirate claimed he did it "...because my family business faced financial crisis".

Another pirate plotted with his wife and brother to sell pirated copies of Dragon Ball (it's not clear which Dragon Ball), netting about 20 million yen.

As the author of the Pirate Anime FAQ, it's interesting to see some solid figures about how profitable piracy can be, usually the information I get is hazy to say the least when it comes to the quantity of pirate goods sold. Recently I have found that the authorities in Japan have started to clamp down on piracy making a more visible effort to close operations like this.