CHATSWORTH, Calif. - The Animation Co-Op Defense League, an association of adult animation distributors and studios, said it has made significant progress in its fight against websites that illegally host and sell unlicensed content owned by major animation studios.
"Last year, we collectively decided to group our resources to band together and take the offensive against anyone and everyone throughout the world stealing our content," said Wendy Crawford, director of the Animation Co-Op Defense League and president of Adult Source Media.
The Animation Co-Op Defense League said it has expedited the process of shutting down illegal operators.
"By taking these actions, we have received a tremendous amount of support from many legitimate website operators, affiliates and fans," Crawford said. "With the creation of the ACDL, all of the U.S.-based hentai distributors and studios, as well as the Japanese production studio houses, are working together to combat this problem."
Crawford said legal action has been taken against those who steal content and sell it without licenses.
"We all want to address this serious situation so we can continue to deliver content programming to the legion of fans who deserve the best entertainment available," she said.
The organization said it has retained legal counsel that specializes in intellectual-property litigation in parts of the world where many of the illegal operations were taking place.
"Every day, we speak with websites, tube sites and affiliate programs who have knowingly or unknowingly displayed content that they do not have the rights for," Crawford said. "We have discovered that some of them were misinformed and want to legally comply with the co-op's members to obtain legitimate licenses to resell the material."
The group said it has taken down 5,006 movie file-sharing links, 2,123 picture file-sharing links and 3,609 blog posts this year.
"The co-op is aggressively tracking and shutting down these illegal operations," Crawford said. "This is really an unprecedented action which has united us all.
"We encourage any and all website operators and affiliates to contact us if they are uncertain as to whether or not the content they are offering has been authorized. We can guide them through the licensing-of-material process necessary to make their sites a success while supporting those who produce those materials."
To contact the Animation Co-Op Defense League, send email to [email protected].
