You don’t really need to go to Japan to know that anime and manga are big deals not only in the country, but around the world as well as it has become something of a global phenomenon. However given that many of us do not speak or read Japanese, some users have resorted to illegally ripped copies that have been subbed/dubbed in their native language.
Obviously this isn’t sitting well with the Japanese government who has relied on anime and manga as one of its economy-boosting exports, which is why interestingly enough instead of relying on hi-tech algorithms to help deal with online piracy, they have decided to go revert back to using actual human beings to help scour the internet of illegally uploaded copies of shows and comics.
Prior to this, the Japanese government relied on software to help detect piracy, but since pirates got smarter as they figured out how to slip past the software by making modifications to their uploads, this rendered the software less effective than the government would like. The job of these human “pirate hunters” will be to trawl forums and websites where anime and manga are uploaded and shared illegally.
We’re not sure if this is more efficient since humans can only do so much, but at the same time humans are obviously more adept at detecting when a file has been changed or modified to evade software. The trial to use humans is expected to kick off next week to prove its effectiveness.