Kyoto police also serve warrant to Japanese delivery company employee

The Yomiuri Shimbun's Yomiuri Online news website reported on Friday that Kyoto Prefectural Police arrested three Chinese males on charges of copyright violation, after allegedly uploading a scanned chapter of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga to an English-language website. The police also served an arrest warrant to a male Japanese employee of a delivery company.

According to The Yomiuri Shimbun's source close to the investigation, the delivery company employee allegedly acquired a copy of this year's 49th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine (cover pictured at right) sometime during the magazine's delivery from the printer to bookstores. The individual then gave the copy to his accomplices, who then allegedly uploaded the One Piece chapter to an English-language piracy website.

While the report did not specify the website, it mentions that the site illegally hosts over 4,000 manga translated into English. According to the source, the illegally scanned and uploaded One Piece chapter was available on the site on October 29, four days before the issue hit store shelves.

The Yomiuri Shimbun's report stated that while in recent years illegal distribution of manga has become a problem as manga becomes more popular worldwide, "this is the first time a piracy site intended for foreign readers has been exposed."

Update: The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the men allegedly uploaded the chapter to the English-language pirate manga website "mangapanda." The newspaper also added that the Japanese delivery company suspect is a 69-year-old man from Saitama Prefecture. The four men have denied the charges, and the Japanese delivery company suspect has been quoted as saying: "I only delivered the books."

[Via Yara-On!]