The world's largest anime piracy site has officially changed its name following a dramatic rise in notoriety and a blocking order from the High Courts.
The biggest in the world animated Piracy site Aniwatch has recently changed its name following a huge rise in infamy.
Popular site "Aniwatch" changed its domain name to "HiAnime" this week. Users trying to access Aniwatch received the message: "Aniwatch will be renamed to HiAnime. You will be redirected to the new HiAnime website in 10 seconds. Or you can also click here to go to HiAnime now." According Similarweb, "Aniwatch" is the most visited anime piracy site worldwide with 136.2 million visitors as of January 2024. It is also ranked 16th in the "Streaming & Online TV" category. Aniwatch does not provide an official explanation for the rebranding.
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A new report from torrent monster He adds that a recent order blocking 'dynamic+' sites in India may have motivated this. This refers to a court-ordered instruction to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to a website, and the theory is especially likely given that India is Aniwatch's largest user base. Pressure from groups trying to shut down Aniwatch has a long history, and the site was previously the notorious zoro.to. Both Aniwatch and its predecessor constitute the few Anime Sites Featured About the US Government's Most Notorious Hacking and list of counterfeit markets. Torrent Freak also speculates that the rebranding is likely a temporary measure to avoid the blocking order, given that Aniwatch's enormous size means that a rebrand does little to hide it from scrutiny.
Most users have not reported significant changes to the service, and user accounts and watchlist registrations have been transferred. However, some have complained about HiAnime's spelling given its similarity to an 18+ anime site. Pop-up ads also seem to be more prevalent on the new site.
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Anime and manga piracy remains a topic of heated debate
Heated conversations about piracy continue to take place over the past few weeks. Crunchyroll angered a section of the anime community that followed it Funimation End of Service Announcementwhich meant price increases for certain users and the Loss of digital copies that came with paid Blu-rays.. Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Purini adds that the company is doing everything possible to compensate affected users in this regard. On the other hand, although many continue to describe the motives behind piracy as a purely service issue, the arrests of the two foreign individuals who leaked important Weekly Shonen Jump and Kodansha, which is already getting simulcast releases, seem to have done little to deter people from taking up piracy.
Source: Aniwatch, torrent monster
