Thousands of pirated manga: this is what the Japscan site offers today in the viewfinder of French justice. The Paris judicial court indeed ordered, Wednesday, July 23, the blocking of the platform as well as its sub-domains in France, after a procedure launched by the National Edition Syndicate (SNE).
The court orders “To companies Bouygues Telecom, Free, SFR, Fiber and Orange to implement or make implement, all measures capable of preventing access to the Japscan.lol site (…) and in particular by blocking domain names and associated subdomains » For a period of eighteen months, we can read in the court decision consulted by the France-Presse agency.
“Specializing in manga, Manhwas (Korean BD), Manhuas (Chinese BD), BD and Comics, Japscan offered nearly 13,000 titles accessible from French territory in defiance of the rights of authors and publishers, and was consulted by more than 690,000 unique visitors per month in France”develops the SNE in a press release.
Manga slowdown
“The National Edition union is carrying out an active fight against hacking recently marked by two successes obtained in court for the end of blocking the Z-Library site. This new action is confirming the union’s desire to defend copyright whenever it is threatened ”said Vincent Montagne, its president. On his site, Japscan explains that “The manga offered (…) are unofficial translations carried out by and for fans, for a strictly informative purpose ” and encourage “Strongly to buy the official version available in your country, to directly support the creators”.
The manga and the webtoon experienced frantic growth in France in the early 2020s, before scoring the plunge, or even backing up since 2023. According to the GFK cabinet (Nielseniq group), the manga turnover fell 13 % in 2023, then 4 % in 2024. Piracy is linked to the current poor health of the sector, estimates the SNE. “This phenomenon directly affects publishers’ sales in a declining market. In 2024, sales in the manga editorial sector decreased by 9.3 % in volume ”deplores the union.
