Skip to content 
In a major blow to online piracy, Brazilian authorities conducted the second phase of a coordinated operation, called Operation Animes, on April 25, 2024, targeting illegal distribution of Japanese anime and Korean webtoons.
This was led by the Civil Police forces of five states – Alagoas, Ceará, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, and São Paulo – with the aim to protect intellectual property rights and dismantle criminal networks profiting from pirated content.
The operation, spearheaded by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security’s Cybernetics Operations Laboratory (Ciberlab), saw 11 search warrants executed. Authorities seized computer devices and hard drives believed to contain evidence of copyright infringement.
Additionally, two websites offering pirated anime and webtoons, the names of which were undisclosed, were blocked, and search engine results for this content were de-indexed.
In Brazil, the penalty for those who commit this crime is imprisonment, from two to four years, and a fine (article 184, §3 of the Brazilian Penal Code). The suspects may also be indicted for criminal association (article 288 – Penal Code) and money laundering (article 1 – Law 9.613/1998).
Operation Animes mirrors the approach of the “Operation 404,” a previous crackdown on online piracy, and is being conducted in cooperation with international organizations such as the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) based in Japan and the Copyright Overseas Promotion Association (COA) from South Korea.
A total of 31 sites were taken down as a part of this operation.
Source: Gov.br
