Three people involved in a website in China offering pirated Japanese anime have been found guilty by a local court of copyright infringement in the first such conviction of an overseas operator as a result of Japanese lobbying, a trade group said Monday.

A court in Jiangsu Province north of Shanghai handed down the verdict last December to the unnamed trio operating "B9GOOD" after the Content Overseas Distribution Association had filed criminal charges against them and the Chinese police charged them last year.

The website illegally uploaded about 46,000 videos, including anime, with approximately 95 percent of access coming from Japan, according to CODA, which was founded by the Japanese anime industry to protect and promote Japanese content.

CODA said a man who had operated the site since 2008 under various names was given a prison term of three years, suspended for three years and six months, and was fined 1.8 million yuan ($250,000).

In addition, two women who were paid to upload videos were sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for 18 months, and eight months in prison, suspended for one year, respectively.

The court determined the website unlawfully gained ad revenue of roughly 1.78 million yuan.

"We expect the move will have a great impact in preventing piracy websites," CODA said in a statement.