3 Count: My Hero Copyright

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1: Meghan Markle’s Front Page Daily Mail Statement Paused as Tabloid Seeks to Appeal in Copyright Case

First off today, Namam Ramachandran at Variety reports that, in the UK, The Mail will not have to print a statement from Meghan Markle on its front page, at least not yet, as the paper has filed an appeal in the case.

Markle sues The Mail and its parent company Associated Newspapers over the publication of a private letter she sent to her estranged father. The accused the paper of violating her privacy, breaching the Data Protection Act and infringing her copyright. On the copyright and privacy fronts, a lower court has already sided with her and ordered The Mail to publish a front page statement both in print and online.

However, that statement is now on hold as Advanced Newspapers has received a stay until April 6 to file an appeal against the judgment. If published, the statement will appear both on the front page of the printed paper for one edition and on the paper’s website for an entire week.

2: Mangadex Has Been Hacked, Users Should Assume Data Has Been Breached

Next up today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that the scanlation site MangaDex has been hacked and the site’s administrators are advising users to assume that their data has been breached.

MangaDex is a scanlation site that scans manga comics and translates them into languages other than their original. The site was reaching an estimated 75 million visitors per month but is currently offline following a hack that took place last week. According to MangaDex, the attackers got in reusing a session token and, in an email sent to a handful of users, claimed to have accessed the site’s database.

The attackers attempted to send a ransom request for “10K BTC”, which is worth about $550 million at current prices. However, MangaDex chose to simply take the site down and is rebuilding a new version of it. However, that process will take at least two weeks.

3: My Hero Academia Promotes Government Anti-Piracy Filtering Service

Finally today, Kim Morrissy at Anime News Network reports that the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication has released a new video educating the public about the nation’s stricter copyright laws. However, the video caught the eye of manga fans for its use of My Hero Academia characters and artwork throughout.

The new laws took effect January 1 and saw a wide variety of changes including government-sanctioned filtering services for blocking pirate sites, punishments for those that knowing download and upload pirated manga content and the banning of “leech” sites that provide links to pirated material hosted elsewhere.

The new video is 2 minutes long and features characters from the manga My Hero Academia explaining the new laws and how they impact users. This is not new territory for the manga as its publisher, Shueisha, teamed up with other publishers to launch a campaign against piracy in 2018.

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