Court Orders Cloudflare to Hand Over the “Manga1000” Operators’ IDs

• California court approves the DMCA subpoena against Manga1000 operators and orders Cloudflare to hand over details.
• The Japanese manga publisher is asking for real names, addresses, phone numbers, and credit card details.
• It is very improbable that Cloudflare has any useful data to share on the identities of the Manga1000 owners.

The United States District Court of California has approved a DMCA subpoena request submitted by Shogakukan and ordered Cloudflare to reveal the identities of the owners and operators of the ‘manga1000.com’ and ‘manga1001.com’ platforms. Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of manga, literature works, and other material that is freely shared on the Manga1000 platforms. Thus, this is a copyright infringement case, and Cloudflare is in the context as one of the key enablers of this illicit operation.

The official request from Shogakukan to Cloudflare includes the following details about the operators of Manga1000:

• Full names
• Physical addresses
• Telephone numbers
• Email addresses
• Account numbers
• Credit card numbers
• Billing information
• Hosting provider
• Server
• Logs
• IP addresses

The DMCA subpoena includes six examples of infringement, with details about the author, the pirate URLs, original URLs, and SEO titles used to direct internet users in the pirating platforms. Shogakukan has requested the removal of the infringing works presented in the exhibit and the ceasing of distribution and unlawful reproduction. However, the two platform operators have ignored the notices and continued their operation. Due to the similarities in the interface, website design, and content, Shogakukan believes that the same team of people is behind both of these pirating platforms.

This is the second time within the running month that we see a DMCA subpoena directed to Cloudflare. Last time, it was ACE and the MPA who filed it, and the same kind of incertitude that characterized that move is present on the Shogakukan application as well. The source of uncertainty is the validity of the data that Cloudflare holds on the pirating manga websites’ operators, as handing over misleading or plainly fake details would have no value for the publisher.

Back in June 2019, Shogakukan obtained a DMCA subpoena that ordered YouTube to share the PPI of users who were infringing on the Japanese manga publisher’s rights. These users were uploading videos of Shogakukan’s books and comics after they had scanned them as PDFs and added some matching music to let the reader immerse into the story. Some of these users were easier targets because their AdSense activation would presuppose the sharing of their real identities with YouTube. When it comes to the Manga1000, though, this is highly unlikely to be the case.