When the high-traffic anime site 4anime shut down last week, it offered no explanation for the shutdown. Corey Silverstein, the adult industry attorney behind MyAdultAttorney.com and Adult.Law, has now provided that explanation.
In a statement issued today, Silverstein revealed that he issued a subpoena to 4anime’s CDN service provider, Cloudfare, on July 5 on behalf of Legacy Rights Group. The subpoena “required CDN provider Cloudflare to hand over the personal information of 4anime’s operators — names, addresses, billing records, email addresses, IP addresses, and any other information that could help to track down the people in charge — essentially unmasking the pirates behind the site,” Silverstein’s statement explained.
“Typically compliant with these sorts of requests, Cloudflare had three weeks for the date of issuance to respond,” the statement detailed. “The subpoena, however, essentially became moot as 4anime shuttered of its own accord well before the July 26th deadline.”
In its coverage of the shutdown, Torrent news site TorrentFreak reported “We don’t know for sure that this legal pressure is the reason for [4anime’s] sudden shutdown, but the timing would certainly fit,” later adding that “whether any data were handed over [prior to the site’s closure] is unknown.”
Silverstein is more certain the legal pressure he brought to bear is directly connected to 4anime’s “unceremonious closure.”
“Violation of my client’s intellectual property is not tolerated under any circumstances,” Silverstein said. “Rest assured that you can run but you cannot hide from being held accountable from blatant violations of the law.”
Silverstein also addressed 4anime’s unsuccessful attempt to hide behind a CDN.
“Using third party DNS providers such as Cloudflare to try to hide will not deter someone who wants to fight back against piracy,” Silverstein said.
Silverstein’s statement said his work targeting 4anime “marks a win for combating piracy and seeking internet equity overall,” adding that there is “still much to do however,” and calling upon members of the adult community to “stay vigilant and active when working protecting their intellectual property online.”
Silverstein is the managing and founding member of Silverstein Legal and the founder of subscription service Adult.Law. His practice focuses on representing all areas of the adult industry. Those interested in retaining Adult.Law’s services can learn more about its subscription tiers here. You can also follow Silverstein on Twitter at @myadultattorney and on Instagram at @coreydsilverstein.
