MangaDex

Last updated

MangaDex
MangaDex logo.svg Mangadex wordmark.svg
Logo and wordmark
MangaDex screenshot.png
A screenshot of MangaDex's website
Type of site
Content aggregation
Available inInterface available in English, Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese; user uploads in several other languages
FoundedJanuary 2018
Founder(s) Hologfx
URL mangadex.org
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedJanuary 10, 2018;6 years ago (2018-01-10)
Current statusActive

MangaDex is a nonprofit website that aggregates translations of manga, manhwa, and manhua. Content on the website is usually unofficial, uploaded by "scanlation" groups, but links to official services like Manga Plus and Bilibili Comics are also provided on the website. MangaDex was started in 2018 by developer Hologfx, and was initially funded through user donations, but is now funded through affiliate programs. The website is blocked in several countries, including Italy and Russia.

Contents

Content

MangaDex primarily hosts unofficial fan translations (scanlations) of manga, manhwa, and manhua [‡ 1] uploaded by users, [1] with content on the website often being liable for copyright takedowns. [2] Outgoing links to chapters from official services like Manga Plus and Bilibili Comics are also available, however. [‡ 2] [‡ 3] MangaDex provides advanced search filtering for series based on demographic (e.g. Shōjo , Shōnen ), themes, genres, format and publication status, and allows users to organize titles into personalized libraries. A forum is also hosted on the website. [1] Funding for the website's servers has historically been provided through user donations, but is now funded primarily through affiliate programs. It is run by unpaid volunteers. [‡ 4] The interface of the website is available in English, Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese, with chapters also being available in other languages. [‡ 5]

History

MangaDex was created by developer Hologfx in January 2018 [‡ 4] as part of "Project AniDex". [‡ 6] An official forum for the website was made public in March. [‡ 7]

DMCA subpoena

On December 20, 2019, attorney Evan Stone requested a subpoena on behalf of Viz Media against Cloudflare to give up identifying information on MangaDex's operator. Stone alleged that the website was infringing the copyright of Viz Media by hosting the manga Boruto: Naruto Next Generations . [3] The subpoena was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. [4] On January 1, 2020, MangaDex announced on Twitter that they had shut the site down, and would be moving their content to a new web hosting service. They expected to be down for approximately 72 hours. [3] [5] Writing for Everyeye.it  [ it ], Amedeo Sebastiano speculated that the intention of Viz Media, who are owned by Shueisha, may have been to eliminate competition to their new platform Manga Plus. [6] Shueisha had previously requested a subpoena of manga-hosting website Mangastream in March, [7] and sued another website, Hoshinoromi, in September. [8]

The website was back up on January 5 under another hosting service with a different temporary top-level domain, .cc; they had previously used .org. The DMCA subpoena was allegedly caused by a user uploading colored edits of official English translations of Boruto, which was prohibited on the website. Due to legal issues, the new host would not accept site donations, leaving funding for the site an issue. [9] The offending chapters were removed, and the website asked users not to upload official released chapters. They also urged users to report any violations. [10]

2020 bandwidth issues and MangaDex@Home

In 2020, MangaDex started experiencing bandwidth issues from increased traffic during the COVID-19 lockdowns, compounded by manga-pirating website MangaRock shutting down. Both events led to 15 percent increases in traffic. The operators of the website were also informed that one of its providers would no longer host cached images on their servers. They consequently described "dismal loading times for old chapters", and announced in June that they would launch MangaDex@Home, an open-source, peer-to-peer, distributed computing project that would allow users to volunteer their PCs or servers to host cached images, alleviating bandwidth costs. They described the user participation to be "greater than [they] could have imagined", and all visitors of the website were set to receive images from other users through MangaDex@Home rather than MangaDex's servers. [11] Requirements for hosting on the service were described by PC Professionale writer Alfonso Maruccia as stringent, asking users to have at least 80 megabytes per second of both upload and download speed, 40 gigabytes of dedicated space, and 24/7 upkeep. [12] In August, MangaDex reported that their servers were under heavy strain due to new registrations after the websites KissAnime and KissManga were shut down. [13]

Data breach and codebase rewrite

On March 17, 2021, MangaDex operators stated that a hacker had gained access to an administrator's account through a session token from an old database leak. The developers found the vulnerabilities that caused this, but three days later, the hacker gained additional access to another administrator account. They claimed to have gained access to user data, and sent a ransom notice to the developers for $10 thousand in bitcoin. Two hours later, they posted a source code leak to GitHub, where they claimed that the site still had a vulnerability despite earlier patches from the developers. The site's operators had no evidence that there had been a data breach, but they still assumed that it had happened for security reasons, and shut down the website in addition to warning users to reset their password. [14] [15] The hacker's source code leak was removed from Github following a takedown notice by MangaDex later that month. [16] Following the attack, MangaDex announced a bug bounty program to further improve security. [17]

By mid-April, MangaDex had confirmed that they had identified a data breach containing users' email addresses, IP addresses, and hashed passwords. They consequently worked with security website Have I Been Pwned? to inform users of the breach, and encouraged people to change their passwords. [18] By this point, the leak had been circulating privately on the internet, but not widely so according to Have I Been Pwned? operator Troy Hunt. [19]

After the hack, the developers stated that the website's codebase would be completely rewritten for a more secure v5 version of the website, which they estimated would take between one and three weeks. [14] [15] [20] They also stated that it was difficult to give an accurate estimate of the downtime because of the site being run by volunteers. [21] The API of the v5 codebase rewrite was released into closed beta on April 12, with an open release on May 11. [‡ 8] On June 6, the frontend for the rework was released into early access. [‡ 9]

Blocks

In June 2021, customers of the internet service provider (ISP) Verizon started reporting that they had become unable to access MangaDex and other websites hosted by DDoS-Guard. TorrentFreak journalist Ernesto van der Sar speculated that the block may not have been on purpose, but rather collateral damage of Verizon blocking IP addresses that are similar to MangaDex's. [22] In November, MangaDex's developers managed to create a work-around to allow Verizon customers to access the website, but they were uncertain if it would work permanently. They suggested that users should "consider switching to an ISP that doesn't censor [their] internet access". [23] They did not provide an explanation to the workaround. [2] Similarly, Indonesian ISPs owned by Telkom Indonesia, including IndiHome and Telkomsel, blocked users from accessing the website in November 2021. A MangaDex administrator claimed on their official Discord server that Telkom had been extorting them for money, alleging that Telkom customers would not be able to access the website unless MangaDex paid them. [24]

On December 23, 2021, the Italian government agency Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni stopped MangaDex from operating in Italy after a complaint from the Italian Publishers' Association. This also affected other websites hosting manga. [25] In August 2022, users in Russia similarly lost access to the website. [‡ 10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scanlation</span> Fan translation of comics, often manga

Scanlation is the fan-made scanning, translation, and editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work performed by groups and is nearly always done without express permission from the copyright holder. The word "scanlation" is a portmanteau of the words scan and translation. The term is mainly used for Japanese manga, although it also exists for other languages, such as Korean manhwa and Chinese manhua. Scanlations may be viewed at websites or as sets of image files downloaded via the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Pirate Bay</span> Website providing torrent files and magnet links

The Pirate Bay is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute magnet links and torrent files, which facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing among users of the BitTorrent protocol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demonoid</span> BitTorrent website

Demonoid is a BitTorrent tracker and website founded in 2003 to facilitate file-sharing related discussion and provide a searchable index of torrent files. The site underwent intermittent periods of extended downtime in its history due to the occasional need to move the server, generally caused by cancellation of ISP service due to local political pressure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TorrentFreak</span> Blog on file sharing, copyright infringement, and digital rights

TorrentFreak (TF) is a blog dedicated to reporting the latest news and trends on the BitTorrent protocol and file sharing, as well as on copyright infringement and digital rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torrentz</span> BitTorrent metasearch engine

Torrentz was a Finland-based metasearch engine for BitTorrent, run by an individual known as Flippy and founded on 24 July 2003. It indexed torrents from various major torrent websites and offered compilations of various trackers per torrent that were not necessarily present in the default .torrent file, so that when a tracker was down, other trackers could do the work. It was the second most popular torrent website in 2012.

This is a comparison of BitTorrent websites that includes most of the most popular sites. These sites typically contain multiple torrent files and an index of those files.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EZTV</span> TV torrent distribution group

EZTV is a TV torrent distribution group founded in May 2005 and dissolved in April 2015, after a hostile takeover of their domains and brand by "EZCLOUD LIMITED". It quickly became the most visited torrent site for TV shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Countries blocking access to The Pirate Bay</span>

This is a list on countries where at least one internet service provider (ISP) formerly or currently censors the popular file sharing website The Pirate Bay (TPB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popcorn Time</span> BitTorrent client and media player software

Popcorn Time is a multi-platform, free software BitTorrent client that includes an integrated media player. The application provides a piracy-based alternative to subscription-based video streaming services such as Netflix. Popcorn Time uses sequential downloading to stream video listed by several torrent websites, and third-party trackers can also be added manually. The legality of the software depends on the jurisdiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nyaa Torrents</span> File sharing website focused on East Asian media

Nyaa Torrents is a BitTorrent website focused on East Asian media. It is one of the largest public anime-dedicated torrent indexes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RARBG</span> BitTorrent metasearch engine

RARBG was a website that provided torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. From 2014 to 2023, RARBG repeatedly appeared in TorrentFreak's yearly list of most visited torrent websites. It was ranked 4th as of January 2023. The website did not allow users to upload their own torrents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZeroNet</span> Peer to peer web hosting

ZeroNet is a decentralized web-like network of peer-to-peer users, created by Tamas Kocsis in 2015, programming for the network was based in Budapest, Hungary; is built in Python; and is fully open source. Instead of having an IP address, sites are identified by a public key. The private key allows the owner of a site to sign and publish changes, which propagate through the network. Sites can be accessed through an ordinary web browser when using the ZeroNet application, which acts as a local webhost for such pages. In addition to using bitcoin cryptography, ZeroNet uses trackers from the BitTorrent network to negotiate connections between peers. ZeroNet is not anonymous by default, but it supports routing traffic through the Tor network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Library Genesis</span> File-sharing website for print publications

Library Genesis (LibGen) is a file-sharing based shadow library website for scholarly journal articles, academic and general-interest books, images, comics, audiobooks, and magazines. The site enables free access to content that is otherwise paywalled or not digitized elsewhere. LibGen describes itself as a "links aggregator", providing a searchable database of items "collected from publicly available public Internet resources" as well as files uploaded "from users".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sci-Hub</span> Scientific research paper file sharing website

Sci-Hub is a shadow library website that provides free access to millions of research papers, regardless of copyright, by bypassing publishers' paywalls in various ways. Unlike Library Genesis, it does not provide access to books. Sci-Hub was founded in Kazakhstan by Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011, in response to the high cost of research papers behind paywalls. The site is extensively used worldwide. In September 2019, the site's operator(s) said that it served approximately 400,000 requests per day. In addition to its intensive use, Sci-Hub stands out among other shadow libraries because of its easy use/reliability and because of the enormous size of its collection; a 2018 study estimated that Sci-Hub provided access to 95% of all scholarly publications with issued DOI numbers, and on 15 July 2022, Sci-Hub reported that its collection comprised 88,343,822 files.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KissAnime</span> Anime-focused piracy file streaming site

KissAnime was an anime-focused file streaming website that hosted links and embedded videos, allowing users to stream or download movies and TV shows illegally for free. It was a sister site to a related manga viewing website, KissManga. KissAnime was described as "one of the world’s biggest streaming anime websites". TorrentFreak reported that the sites had audiences of millions and that for a time, KissAnime was "the most visited pirate site in the world".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Z-Library</span> File-sharing site for journal articles, books, and magazines

Z-Library is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic texts and general-interest books. It began as a mirror of Library Genesis, but has since expanded dramatically.

FitGirl Repacks is a website distributing pirated video games. FitGirl Repacks is known for "repacking" games – compressing them significantly so they can be downloaded and shared more efficiently. TorrentFreak listed FitGirl Repacks at sixth in 2021 and at ninth in 2020's Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites lists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DDoS-Guard</span> Russian-owned Internet infrastructure services provider

DDoS-Guard is a Russian Internet infrastructure company which provides DDoS protection and web hosting services. Researchers and journalists have alleged that many of DDoS-Guard's clients are engaged in criminal activity, and investigative reporter Brian Krebs reported in January 2021 that a "vast number" of the websites hosted by DDoS-Guard are "phishing sites and domains tied to cybercrime services or forums online". Some of DDoS-Guard's notable clients have included the Palestinian Islamic militant nationalist movement Hamas, American alt-tech social network Parler, and various groups associated with the Russian state.

Zippyshare, also capitalized ZippyShare, was a free file-sharing website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna's Archive</span> Search engine of shadow libraries

Anna's Archive is a search engine for shadow libraries. It was founded by the Pirate Library Mirror, a team of anonymous archivists, in direct response to law enforcement efforts to close down Z-Library in 2022. It describes itself as a project that aims to "catalog all the books in existence" and to "track humanity's progress toward making all these books easily available in digital form".

References

  1. 1 2 Crowder, Crystal (January 29, 2023). "12 of the Best Websites to Read Manga Online". Make Tech Easier. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  2. 1 2 Immanni, Manikanta (November 13, 2021). "MangaDex Comes Up With a Solution to Bypass Verizon's Block". Techdator. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Maxwell, Andy (January 3, 2020). "MangaDex Targeted by DMCA Subpoena, Now Migrating Servers". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  4. ↑ Viz Media v. Cloudflare(N.D. Tex.December 23, 2019), Text .
  5. ↑ Maruccia, Alfonso. "Manga on-line, problemi legali anche per le scanlation di MangaDex" [Manga Online, Legal Problems even for MangaDex Scanlation]. PC Professionale (in Italian). Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  6. ↑ Sebastiano, Amedeo (January 4, 2020). "Anche MangaDex ha problemi legali: chiuderà uno dei più grandi database di manga pirata?" [Even MangaDex has Legal Problems: Could one of the Largest Databases of Pirated Manga Close Down?]. Everyeye.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  7. ↑ Van der Sar, Ernesto (December 20, 2019). "Mangastream Disappears After Being Targeted by Publisher". Torrentfreak. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  8. ↑ Van der Sar, Ernesto (September 14, 2019). "Manga Publishers Sue Pirate Site "Hoshinoromi" in New York Court". Torrentfreak. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  9. ↑ Maxwell, Andy (January 6, 2020). "MangaDex Returns Under a New Domain, Confirms Legal Issues". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  10. ↑ Digioia, Alessandro (January 5, 2020). "MangaDex crolla e torna online nel giro di poche ore, eliminati tutti i capitoli di Boruto" [MangaDex Collapses and Returns Online in a few Hours, Deleting All Chapters of Boruto]. Everyeye.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on February 8, 2023. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  11. ↑ Maxwell, Andy (June 27, 2020). "MangaDex Develops P2P System to Distribute Manga Sharing Bandwidth Costs". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  12. ↑ Maruccia, Alfonso (June 29, 2020). "Mangadex@Home, le scanlation dei manga si leggono via P2P". PC Professionale (in Italian). Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  13. ↑ Van der Sar, Ernesto (August 15, 2020). "Piracy Giants KissAnime and KissManga Shut Down". Torrentfreak. Archived from the original on August 15, 2020. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  14. 1 2 Haworth, Jessica (March 22, 2021). "MangaDex website taken offline following cyber-attack, data breach". The Daily Swig. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  15. 1 2 Maxwell, Andy (March 22, 2021). "Mangadex Has Been Hacked, Users Should Assume Data Has Been Breached". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  16. ↑ Maxwell, Andy (April 2, 2021). "MangaDex Resorts to Filing Github DMCA Notice To Mitigate Hacking Fallout". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  17. ↑ Seals, Tara (March 23, 2021). "MangaDex Site Offline Following Hacking Incident". Threatpost. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  18. ↑ Maxwell, Andy (April 22, 2021). "Mangadex Works With 'Have I Been Pwned?' to Warn Users About Hacked Database". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  19. ↑ Abrams, Lawrence (April 27, 2021). "MangaDex discloses data breach after stolen database shared online". Bleeping Computer. Archived from the original on May 30, 2023. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  20. ↑ Abrams, Lawrence (March 22, 2021). "MangaDex manga site temporarily shut down after cyberattack". Bleeping Computer. Archived from the original on May 30, 2023. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  21. ↑ Muncaster, Phil (March 23, 2021). "MangaDex Site Could Be Offline for Weeks After Attack". Infosecurity Magazine. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  22. ↑ Van der Sar, Ernesto (June 8, 2021). "Why is Verizon Blocking Pirate Sites Such as NYAA and Mangadex?". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  23. ↑ Maxwell, Andy (November 13, 2021). "ISP Verizon Fails to Lift MangaDex Blockade, Manga Site Codes Own Solution (Update)". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  24. ↑ Akbar, Ayyadana (January 12, 2022). "Telkom Dilaporkan Berusaha Peras Situs MangaDex" [Telkom Reportedly Attempt Extortion of MangaDex Website]. Diorama (in Indonesian). Suara Merdeka. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  25. ↑ Reina, Daniela (December 24, 2021). "Mangadex non è più disponibile in Italia" [MangaDex No Longer Accessible in Italy]. drcommodore.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ↑ "About". MangaDex DevBlog. August 31, 2021. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  2. ↑ "MangaPlus". MangaDex. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  3. ↑ @MangaDexRE (September 26, 2021). "As you may noticed, we are currently linking out to certain publishers (like: Bilibili Comics) [...]" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. 1 2 "About Us". MangaDex. Archived from the original on February 6, 2023. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  5. ↑ See dropdown menus in the language section of the settings page: "User Settings". MangaDex. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Project AniDex". Hologfx.com. Archived from the original on January 18, 2018. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  7. ↑ Holo (March 10, 2018). "Welcome to the forums!". MangaDex Forums. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  8. ↑ panda__________ (February 1, 2022). "An API to rule them all". MangaDex DevBlog. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  9. ↑ KatKafka (June 6, 2021). "[SL] MangaDex's Early Access™️ Front End is out". Reddit. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  10. ↑ BraveDude8_1 (August 31, 2022). "MangaDex has been blocked in Russia, please read this post for ways to avoid the block". Reddit. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.