The operator of the pirated anime website "Sakura Animation" was sentenced! Fines of 15,000 yuan
On July 31, according to Japanese media, the operator of the pirated animation website "Sakura Animation" was criminally investigated by the Chengdu Public Security Bureau of Sichuan Province on October 14, 2023 for suspected copyright infringement and other illegal acts. The People's Court of Tianfu New District, Chengdu City made a first-instance judgment on December 13 of the same year, finding him guilty of copyright infringement and forgery of documents. He was sentenced to two years and three months in prison and a fine of 15,000 yuan for several crimes.
It is understood that the operator had appealed the first-instance judgment, but the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court upheld the original judgment in the second-instance trial on July 4, 2025, and the judgment has now taken effect.
The court found that the operator continued to operate the website for profit during the trial of the case, and changed the domain name several times between 2017 and 2021 to evade supervision. The website is mainly aimed at Chinese users and provides a large number of unauthorized Japanese anime resources and is equipped with Chinese subtitles. After investigation, the website illegally released more than 2,100 animations (about 30,000 episodes) during its operation, of which more than 10,000 episodes were confirmed by member companies of the Japanese Content Product Overseas Circulation Promotion Agency (CODA) and belonged to the works of the Japanese copyright owner.
According to survey data from two major domestic genuine video distribution platforms, as of June 2020, the average daily visits of the website reached 50,000 to 100,000. Since September 18, 2018, the relevant copyright holders have repeatedly asked the website to delete the infringing content, but the operator has never responded and continues to spread it illegally.
