California court tells Nhentai adult site operators to unmask themselves

By order of a California federal court, the operators of Nhentai.net, a popular adult website visited by millions each month, will have to identify themselves as the case proceeds.

Even now, the case, initiated by California-based PCR Distributing last summer and describing Nhentai as a significant threat to its business, is called “PCR Distributing Co. v. John Does.”

That’s because no one really knows who’s behind Nhentai, a site serving spicy adult-oriented anime and manga, known as hentai. These Japanese comics are popular globally, but some rightsholders aren’t happy with Nhentai and say they’re actually digital pirates.

PCR Distributing, which operates under brands including J18 and JAST USA, began legal action against Nhentai last year and asked Cloudflare to unmask the people behind the operation, claiming that they failed to process takedown notices.

“Nhentai hosts a vast collection of hentai works, including commercially produced content, much of which, based on information and belief, is shared without proper authorization from the owners,” the complaint alleged (you can read all developments in the case here).

Unexpectedly, Nhentai filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit and prevent PCR Distributing from gaining access to confidential information about the site and its operators.

“This case has nothing to do with copyright infringement, but rather appears to be a money grab and an attempt to take over the entire domain www.nhentai.net based on knowingly meritless claims,” the defense said.

Nhentai even presented alleged evidence that PCR representatives had granted explicit permission for the use of their content on the site, citing communications from 2020 in which PCR representatives explicitly allowed the platform to host their works.

However, in February, US Magistrate Judge Joel Richlin decided that those behind Nhentai failed to provide sufficient evidence that they would be harmed by being named. Furthermore, the judge’s order said that there’s a public interest in knowing who the website's operators are.

The conclusion didn't change after the matter was referred to California District Court Judge Cynthia Valenzuela. This means that the case will now move forward with all copyright infringement claims intact and with the identities behind Nhentai disclosed.

In fact, the entity owning Nhentai has already been identified as X Separator LLC.