Mar 25, 2026 19:00:00

GitHub has removed over 900 repositories and forks of pirated anime viewing tools, but has denied claims that they circumvented DRM.

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Reiterlied

GitHub has removed over 900 repositories and forks related to tools for illegally streaming anime. This action was taken in response to a removal request from Remove Your Media LLC, representing rights holders such as Crunchyroll and VIZ Media.

raw.githubusercontent.com/github/dmca/refs/heads/master/2026/03/2026-03-23-crunchyroll.md
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/dmca/refs/heads/master/2026/03/2026-03-23-crunchyroll.md

GitHub Nukes 900+ Anime Piracy Repos and Forks, But Rejects 'Circumvention' Claims * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/github-nukes-900-anime-piracy-repos-and-forks-but-rejects-circumvention-claims/

This takedown request coincided with the closure of 'HiAnime,' a pirated content site that recorded over 150 million visits per month. The targeted repositories included aniwatch and aniwatch-api, which enabled access to HiAnime's streams, as well as MegacloudKeys, which distributed the encryption keys necessary for extracting videos from MegaCloud. This also included unofficial API tools that other pirated content sites could use to distribute anime.

According to documents released by GitHub, the notice included claims based on Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is the 'non-circumvention clause' prohibiting the provision of DRM (Digital Rights Management) circumvention or the provision of tools to circumvent it.

Remove Your Media LLC claims that the tools in question are techniques that effectively bypass access controls such as subscription-based paywalls, DRM, regional restrictions, and authentication systems implemented by legitimate distribution services like Crunchyroll, Funimation, and VIZ Media. They explain that these tools extract streaming URLs from pirated infrastructure like MegaCloud and HiAnime, automating a route to anime content that bypasses legitimate licensing platforms.

In response, GitHub denied the claim that it was a DRM circumvention, stating that there was 'not enough information to recognize it as a legitimate claim.' On the other hand, it concluded that the other copyright infringement claims were valid and that it ultimately proceeded to delete the repository. In a document released by GitHub, it was reported that the reported network consisted of more than 100 repositories, and that 939 cases were processed, including the parent repository, because the claimant claimed that the majority or all of the forks infringed rights to the same extent as the parent repository.

Furthermore, TorrentFreak, a news media outlet specializing in piracy, argues that this case appears to be different from the youtube-dl case in the past, which GitHub later reversed its removal of.

GitHub decides to revive its video download project 'youtube-dl' - GIGAZINE

The notice emphasizes that the tools removed in this instance are not for legitimate services such as Creative Commons, public domain, or user-generated content, but rather for infrastructure that deals exclusively with pirated content. It states that 'HiAnime deals only with commercial anime works, and these tools are designed to access works without going through payments to legitimate distribution services,' clearly indicating that their purpose is different from tools like youtube-dl.