Cloudflare strongly opposes ruling that holds it liable for piracy
In November 2025, the Tokyo District Court ordered Cloudflare to pay a total of 500 million yen in damages for 'facilitating the large-scale distribution of illegal sites' in a lawsuit filed by a group of Japanese manga publishers for 'hosting a pirated manga site.' Cloudflare has responded to this lawsuit, raising the issue of the liability of content delivery network operators.
Cloudflare Says Piracy Liability Ruling Has Global Implications; Publishers Disagree * TorrentFreak
Tokyo Court Finds Cloudflare Liable For Manga Piracy in Long-Running Lawsuit * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/tokyo-court-finds-cloudflare-liable-for-manga-piracy-in-long-running-lawsuit-liable-for-piracy-following-manga-publishers-lawsuit-251119/
In 2018, a group of major publishers, including Shueisha, Kodansha, KADOKAWA, and Shogakukan, filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court, seeking to hold Cloudflare responsible for continuing to distribute pirated manga sites. The lawsuit was settled in 2019, with the agreement that 'if the court determines that the pirated sites are illegal, Cloudflare will stop distributing them within Japan.'
Then, in January 2022, the same group of publishers sued Cloudflare again, claiming that despite Cloudflare's request to stop copyright infringement and Cloudflare's response that it had taken necessary measures, pirate sites continued to use Cloudflare's services and cache. According to the plaintiffs' claims, two major pirate sites hosted more than 4,000 pirated manga titles, and at their peak, the two sites received a combined monthly hit count of approximately 300 million.
As a result of the trial, Cloudflare was found guilty of aiding copyright infringement by failing to fulfill its obligation to stop streaming after receiving orders to stop service and disclose information from pirate sites, and was ordered to pay a total of 500 million yen in damages. While there have been cases in the past where court orders have been issued to Cloudflare to block access to pirate sites, this is the first case in which Cloudflare has been held liable on the same level as a hosting service.
In response to the ruling, Cloudflare issued a statement dissenting, saying, 'We are a content delivery network (CDN) that transmits data, but we do not host or control content.' Cloudflare added, 'This ruling is not merely a localized case; it sets a global precedent with far-reaching implications by holding intermediaries liable. Holding CDNs like Cloudflare legally liable for content they do not host undermines the liability limitations framework that has underpinned the growth of the global internet. This ruling is the first of its kind in the world and could have serious implications for the efficiency, security, and reliability of the internet worldwide.'
In addition, Cloudflare strongly criticized the ruling, saying that it 'undermines transparency, fairness, and due process, and stifles the health of technology infrastructure and the growth of innovation.' According to reports, Cloudflare has announced an appeal, and future decisions regarding piracy and CDNs are attracting attention.
On the other hand, the lawyers for the publishers denied Cloudflare's claims, saying, 'This ruling is about liability for providing a high degree of anonymity and ignoring infringement notices, not about the provision of the service itself or other CDN service providers.' In response to the ruling, the publishers reported that it was 'a first step in preventing the loophole that says they are not hosting pirate sites but are simply providing a CDN.'
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in Web Service, Posted by log1e_dh