A screenshot of a website that posted text and images of a manga series without permission

Japanese police filed an accusation against a man and his company on Thursday for allegedly transcribing lines from a manga series and posting them on a website without permission in violation of the copyright law.

The police sent papers on the 44-year-old resident of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and the Tokyo-based company that operated the website to public prosecutors.

While admitting to the act, the man has told investigators that he had thought he was acting within the scope of what is permitted, people familiar with the investigation said.

Websites that pirate manga have become a problem in Japan, but it is rare for the operator of a website to be accused of copying lines.

The man is suspected of copying texts and images in editions 60 and 62 of the “Kengan Omega” manga series and making them accessible on a website in May 2020.

“Kengan Omega” is available on official manga apps. Its author had claimed that his copyright was infringed, as nearly entire lines were published without permission.

In March last year, the Tokyo District Court acknowledged the infringement and upheld the author’s demand that the administrator of an app server disclose information about the website’s operator.

The man is believed to have viewed the manga via an app and captured screenshots of its content. He allegedly earned revenue from ads placed on the website. The site has already been shut down.

In a separate case on Thursday, Tokyo police filed an accusation with public prosecutors against a 34-year-old resident of Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, for posting the cover of a popular manga magazine without permission on a so-called leech site, or a site that leads viewers to websites that violate the copyright law.

Last year, three people in Japan were found guilty of uploading so-called fast movies, or illegally edited short versions of copyrighted films, without permission.