📰 New article from TorrentFreak
GitHub Nukes 900+ Anime Piracy Repos and Forks, But Rejects ‘Circumvention’ Claims
GitHub Slams the Brakes on 900+ Anime Piracy Repos—But Snubs the “Circumvention” Angle
When HiAnime—a massive anime piracy hub with 150M+ monthly visits—suddenly vanished earlier this month, it sent shockwaves through the pirate streaming ecosystem. Now, GitHub has followed suit, nuking over 900 repositories (and forks) tied to services like aniwatch and MegacloudKeys, effectively shutting down third-party tools that piggybacked on HiAnime’s infrastructure.
The takedown push came via a DMCA anti-circumvention claim from Remove Your Media (representing Crunchyroll, VIZ Media, and others), arguing these tools bypassed DRM and paywalls. But GitHub pushed back—not because the repos were innocent, but because the anti-circumvention claim didn’t quite hold water. As GitHub put it: “We did not find sufficient information to determine a valid anti-circumvention claim… but other valid copyright claims were present.”
In plain English: GitHub didn’t buy the “DRM-busting” narrative (likely because no direct circumvention tools were hosted), but it did agree the repos violated copyright—especially since HiAnime and MegaCloud were recently named in the USTR’s Notorious Markets list for distributing tens of thousands of pirated movies and episodes.
Sound familiar? This mirrors the 2020 youtube-dl saga, where GitHub reinstated the tool after backlash—even though it faced similar circumvention accusations. The difference? This time, GitHub pulled the plug anyway.
So what’s next? History suggests it’s only a matter of time before these tools reappear under new names. But for now, anime pirates are once again back in the shadows—and GitHub’s playbook shows they’re getting smarter about takedowns, even when the legal theory is shaky.