Recently, fans of the popular adult manga site hentai.net They were involved in a legal controversy that could have major repercussions in the world of Internet copyright protection. It all started when J18 Publishing, owner of Doujin.io, filed a DMCA subpoena request in California federal court, with the aim of discovering the identity of the operator of the website nhentai.net which attracts more than 70 million monthly visits.

The DMCA subpoena is a legal tool that allows copyright owners to request personal data from customers of services like Cloudflare., which provides infrastructure and security for millions of websites worldwide. However, Cloudflare has firmly maintained its position as a “mere conduit” on the network, stating that it does not store content on its servers and is therefore not obligated to take direct action against third-party infringement.

In this context, when Cloudflare receives DMCA takedown requests, it simply forwards them to the customer's hosting company. However, rights holders want Cloudflare to take a more active stance, especially since many popular pirate sites, such as The Pirate Bay, use its services.

After the subpoena is issued, nhentai.net lawyers reacted quickly, arguing that the subpoena should not have been granted in the first place. In their defense, nhentai.net claims that DMCA subpoenas are not intended to be enforced against companies that operate solely as conduits. They cite legal precedents, such as the RIAA v. Verizon case, to support their argument that service providers that only transmit information and do not store content are not subject to these citations.

Furthermore, nhentai.net claims that the subpoena is too broad and that violates the right to anonymous free expression of domain owners. The company emphasizes that images from nhentai.net never pass through Cloudflare servers.

For now, the California federal court has stayed the enforcement of the subpoena, giving J18 Publishing two weeks to justify its request. This case could set a significant precedent in the enforcement of the DMCA.as it could affect future efforts by other major rights-holding groups, such as the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA).

The website nhentai.net is not only known for its vast catalog of hentai manga and doujinshi, but also for its unique reference system using 6-digit codes. These codes allow users to directly access specific posts on the site by adding the number to the end of the nhentai URL. This code system has become extremely popular on social media. where users share these numbers to indicate specific content without having to provide direct links.

Although, The resolution of this case could determine the future of how citations are made DMCA will be treated and whether companies acting as mere conduits will continue to be exempt. of direct responsibilities in cases of piracy.

Source: TorrentFreak