In a significant blow to digital copyright infringement, Naver WEBTOON successfully collaborated with South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), Interpol, and North African law enforcement to dismantle a trio of high-traffic piracy websites. The operation resulted in the arrest of the site operators, who had been running an extensive illicit distribution network targeting readers in the United States, Europe, and other Western regions.
These platforms were far from minor operations; collectively, they amassed over 130 million visits annually, with 20 million visits logged in the last three months alone. By scanning, translating, and hosting more than 300 popular titles, the network functioned as a primary source for unauthorized content that was subsequently scraped and redistributed by smaller piracy aggregators across the internet.
Naver WEBTOON’s dedicated anti-piracy division played a critical role in the takedown. After identifying that the operators were attempting to evade detection by consolidating and rebranding under new domains, the team compiled a comprehensive evidence file. This data proved instrumental for international authorities, allowing them to track the syndicate and execute the coordinated legal action currently underway in local jurisdictions.
