Kakao Entertainment Files Criminal Complaint Against 'Booktokki', Korea's Largest Illegal Web Novel Distribution Website

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Kakao Entertainment, which has taken steps to eradicate illegal distribution of webtoons and web novels, has filed a criminal complaint against the operators of 'BookTokki,' the largest illegal web novel distribution site in South Korea.

On the 2nd, Kakao Entertainment announced that on the 29th of last month, it filed a complaint with the Cyber Investigation Division of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency against the operators of BookTokki for copyright infringement. This is the first case where a criminal complaint has been actively pursued against an illegal web novel distribution site, following a large-scale evidence collection operation related to approximately 2,500 web novel works serialized by Kakao Entertainment.

In the complaint, Kakao Entertainment stated, "BookTokki downloaded works arbitrarily without the copyright holders' permission, then uploaded them without authorization on their site, allowing unknown visitors to view, reproduce, and distribute the content, thereby infringing on copyright property rights for profit by obtaining advertising revenue."

BookTokki focused exclusively on illegally distributing web novels, causing serious mental and physical harm to web novel creators. Like other illegal distribution sites, they displayed banners for various illegal gambling and adult sites on their website, exploiting the precious creations of creators for advertising revenue. They also maliciously operated by repeatedly changing domains to evade blocking measures and distributing new domains through social networking services (SNS) in the underground.

Meanwhile, Kakao Entertainment is leading efforts to eradicate illegal distribution by establishing the industry's first global illegal distribution response task force (TF). Last year, it filed a 1 billion KRW damages lawsuit against the operators of the illegal distribution website Eoljuka.com at the Seoul Central District Court and won. In June, it published a TF white paper detailing significant achievements such as blocking 2.25 million cases of illegal webtoon distribution, preventing damages worth 265 billion KRW, and discovering and blocking over 2,000 global illegal search keywords, sharing enforcement know-how with the industry.

Lee Hojun, Head of Legal Affairs and Global Illegal Distribution Response TF at Kakao Entertainment, said, "In the process of eradicating illegal distribution of Kakao Entertainment IP, we expect to protect not only our IP but also the precious K-webtoons and web novels born from the Korean creative ecosystem that captivate people worldwide." He added, "Kakao Entertainment is leading systematic responses to eradicate illegal distribution in the industry. We will continue to do our best to protect the rights and interests of creators."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.