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Anime piracy has always been a sensitive topic, with large media companies seeing it as a major threat to their profitability. Despite years of legal fights, website takedowns, and anti-piracy campaigns, piracy still remains prevalent. However, a newly proposed bill called The Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (FADPA) endorsed by the Motion Pictures Association (MPA), includes industry giants such as Netflix, Disney, Amazon, and Sony to solve the piracy issue.
If passed, this law would grant copyright holders the ability to petition U.S. courts to block access to foreign piracy sites. While corporations applaud this as a step toward protecting intellectual property, fans argue that these attempts completely miss the real problem. The actual reason anime piracy persists is not a lack of regulation, but rather, the industry’s failure to provide accessible, inexpensive, and high-quality streaming options to their customers.
The FADPA bill: A misguided approach to solve anime piracy
On July 12, 2025, U.S. Congresswoman Zoe LofgrenintroducedH.R. 791, the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (FADPA). If passed, the bill would allow copyright holders and exclusive licensees to petition US courts to prohibit access to foreign piracy sites.
This means that big service providers like Google, Cloudflare, and broadband companies would be legally obligated to take action to block users from accessing their platforms. While this may sound like a decisive move against piracy, history has shown that blocking sites rarely eliminates the problem.
Piracy networks are extremely adaptive, with sites frequently changing domain names, using mirror sites, or transitioning todecentralized distribution techniques.
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Meanwhile, these same corporations invest enormous sums in lobbying efforts, legal battles, and digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, money that could instead be used to improve the very services that drive consumers toward piracy in the first place.
The real problem: Frustrating streaming experiences
Streaming services frequently employ severe DRM methods and geo-blocking restrictions, preventing legitimate customers from accessing their preferred content. Fans who travel abroad or live in regions with limited access to anime are frequently locked out of their own subscriptions. Netflix, for example, has aggressively cracked down on password sharing, preventing users from accessing their family’s account while away at college or traveling.
Moreover, even when anime is legally available, fans frequently report censoring, poor translation quality, and missing scenes. Somestreaming platformsmodify anime clips according to broadcasting rules in different regions, cutting or altering scenes that were crucial to the original storytelling.
All these issues led fans to quickly point out that streaming services have the financial and technological resources to address these issues but choose not to. Instead of spending money on improving accessibility, affordability, and user experience, these corporations funnel resources into anti-piracy measures that have proven ineffective.
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Therefore, until the anime industry acknowledges this and improves its services, piracy will continue to thrive, regardless of how many bills are passed or how many websites are taken down. The real solution isn’t more legal restrictions, it’s giving fans a service worth paying for.
Moumita Chakraborty
Articles Published :930
Moumita Chakraborty is a seasoned Anime Writer at FandomWire with over 900 published articles. Passionate about the vibrant world of Japanese anime, she brings sharp analytical skills and cultural insight to every piece. From dissecting intricate plotlines to spotlighting the latest trends and releases, Moumita’s work resonates with both casual fans and seasoned otakus. Her writing aims to connect with fellow anime enthusiasts while contributing meaningfully to the ever-growing anime community.
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