The Tokyo District Court ruled Thursday that the former operator of a now-defunct website allowing users access to pirated manga must pay a total of around 1.7 billion yen ($11 million) in damages to three major Japanese publishers.
The compensation over the website Manga-Mura is the largest ever levied in similar lawsuits, according to the plaintiffs -- Shogakukan Inc., Kadokawa Corp. and Shueisha Inc.
The former operator, Romi Hoshino, 32, told reporters he is "unconvinced" by the ruling, and that he has "no regrets regarding Manga-Mura."
Hoshino was convicted in 2021 of copyright infringement for running the website and served his prison term. But in September last year, he demanded a retrial.
The website was established in February 2016 at the latest, according to the plaintiffs, and before its closure in April 2018 it was accessed some 537 million times.
The publishers had sought damages totaling about 1.9 billion yen.
