‘David Beckham’ was briefly the world’s second-worst manga pirate
Publishers call for better verification of domain name registrants, and ICANN is on the job with a new policy
A website claimed to be registered by "David Beckham" was the world's second-most visited source of pirated Japanese manga in February 2025. Tatsuo Ninoseki, an attorney representing the Japan Publishers manga Anti-Piracy Conference (JPMAC), discussed this issue during an ICANN meeting in Bali, Indonesia. Piracy sites often generate hundreds of millions of users and cost publishers $17 billion in revenue annually.
JPMAC aims to target commercial-scale pirates by sending stern legal letters and using other legal means, but these pirates frequently change domain names to avoid detection. They use multiple domains and frequently switch between them, sometimes redirecting users between sites. Ninoseki suggested comprehensive verification of domain name registrants, including physical addresses, could help combat this problem.
ICANN is working on a policy called PDP1, which would require registries to check all domains held by a customer if just one is found to commit DNS abuse.
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