Ministry of Culture and Police Agency Joint International Investigation Seizes Illegal IPTV in Indonesia

72 Domestic and International Channels Live Broadcast
108,000 Illegal Movie and Drama Streams
Two Arrested Through Cooperation with Local Intellectual Property Office

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 4th that, in collaboration with the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, INTERPOL, and the Indonesian Intellectual Property Office, they have arrested three individuals involved in illegal IPTV services in Indonesia. Since 2015, these suspects have been illegally transmitting live broadcasts of seventy-two domestic and international channels, as well as approximately 108,000 files of movies, entertainment shows, and dramas, to Indonesian servers without proper copyright agreements. They provided these services to local Korean residents for a fee, infringing on K-content copyrights. The estimated damage exceeds 16 billion KRW.

The suspects systematically infringed copyrights. Mr. A, who was detained and managed domestic transmission, connected forty domestic cable TV units to live broadcast transmission equipment and set up remote access to the video file computers. Mr. B, the overseas mastermind who was detained, remotely accessed this system from Indonesia and illegally transmitted the content to local Korean residents. Mr. C, a co-conspirator who was not detained, developed the application (app) for set-top boxes and managed the servers.

The related investigation intensified after copyright holders such as MBC filed complaints with the Indonesian Intellectual Property Office and the Busan Police Station in May and July. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held international cooperation meetings and, in partnership with the Indonesian Intellectual Property Office, secured investigative clues to prove the suspects' crimes.

The suspects were apprehended through simultaneous domestic and international raids at the end of October. The Ministry stated, "This result was achieved through the combined efforts of our Copyright Crime Scientific Investigation Unit, the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency Cyber Crime Investigation Unit, the Indonesian Intellectual Property Office, INTERPOL’s dedicated team against illegal reproduction, and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency’s Scientific Investigation Support Department."

The arrests were facilitated by the April 2021 memorandum of understanding signed between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the National Police Agency, and INTERPOL (for online copyright infringement response projects), as well as the cooperative relationship established with Indonesian investigative agencies in June. Kim Dong-kwon, the National Police Agency’s International Cooperation Officer, said, "To eradicate illegal distribution of K-content, a Korean police officer working at INTERPOL’s General Secretariat was designated and operated as a dedicated INTERPOL liaison officer, which helped accelerate the investigation. We plan to continue proactive collaboration in the future." Lim Seong-hwan, Director of the Copyright Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, also stated, "We plan to expand international joint investigations and strengthen scientific investigation capabilities such as digital forensics. As a leading country in copyright protection, we will serve as a model for other nations."

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