'Arrest of Operator of Korea's Largest Illegal Web Novel Site for Sharing 27,000 Copies Illegally'

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Collaborates with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and Korea Copyright Protection Agency

The government has apprehended the operator of the largest illegal web novel sharing site in South Korea.

The scene of the seizure and search of 'SwitterOO,' the largest illegal web novel sharing site in Korea.
[Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]

On the 19th, the Copyright Crime Scientific Investigation Unit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency, they arrested the operator of the site 'SwimteoOO', which illegally shared approximately 27,000 web novels domestically and earned an estimated 340 million KRW in revenue from advertisements and other sources.

The site had its servers overseas, which made the investigation difficult. However, the Copyright Crime Scientific Investigation Unit confirmed access from a specific location in South Korea through international cooperation. Based on this, they identified and successfully apprehended the operator and shut down the site.

Through this search and seizure, it was confirmed that the arrested operator also ran similar web novel sharing sites such as 'OOBlue' in addition to 'SwimteoOO'.

'SwimteoOO' disguised itself as a legitimate site by providing novel reviews and information boards, then offered members links to download web novels stored in the cloud in a specific manner.

Web novel industry companies such as Kakao Entertainment and Ridi estimate the damage caused by the illegal sharing on this site to exceed 50 billion KRW.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, "Recently, illegal sharing sites have been promoting that 'because servers are located overseas, it does not violate domestic law' or 'our site only provides download links,' claiming it is not a violation of domestic copyright law. However, even if servers are overseas, domestic users are subject to punishment under Korean law."

They added, "Not only site operators but also users who post links to download copyrighted works can be punished under copyright law depending on their intent and manner."

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