3 Vietnamese Men Apprehended in Hanoi After Allegedly Running Pirate Sites, Apps Streaming Japanese Works
Three Vietnamese men have been apprehended in Hanoi by local police over pirate websites and apps that streamed Japanese and other works without permission.
Three Vietnamese men in their 20s have been apprehended by local police in Hanoi, accused of running pirate websites and applications that streamed copyrighted Japanese and other works without authorization. The allegations come from the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) based in Tokyo, who reported this to be the first such criminal case involving Japanese works in Vietnam.
CODA claims that one of the men operated a website which streamed approximately 2,400 works from various countries, including Japanese anime, movies, and TV dramas. The site was equipped with Vietnamese subtitles and other features, attracting over 90,000 visits since June 2025. The website and its content are no longer accessible as of the report.
The other two men were found to be running apps that required payment for some of the content, generating around ¥2.56 million (approximately $1.8 million) in profits. CODA stated that these activities constitute copyright infringement and represent the first criminal case of its kind in Vietnam, where numerous such websites have been discovered.
Written by urgent.news from The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
