"Illegal Webtoons and Web Novels Beware" Kakao Entertainment Blocks Over 200 Million Illegal Contents in 7 Months

Illegal Distribution Response Team Cracks Down on Copyright Infringement
Largest Scale Ever... Eight Times Expected Results Achieved

Image source=Kakao Entertainment

Kakao Entertainment announced on the 19th that it has removed a total of 208 million illegal webtoon and web novel contents over the past seven months in response to illegal distribution.

According to Kakao Entertainment's 4th Illegal Distribution Response White Paper, the number of blocked illegal contents over seven months reached 208 million, marking the highest figure since the publication of the white paper. This represents an increase of more than 14 times compared to the 3rd white paper and over 88 times compared to the 1st white paper.

Kakao Entertainment has established an automated process that analyzes domain change patterns of illegal sites domestically and internationally to respond in real time. With a significantly enhanced preemptive response system featuring faster and more efficient blocking, the company achieved enforcement results that exceeded last year's expected illegal content blocking figures by about eight times.

Additionally, expanding the country-specific response system to all language zones including the Arab region, South America, and Vietnam also contributed to the increase in the number of blocks. The response process has become more efficient by building a database and systematizing infringement report warning letter templates based on copyright laws for each language zone.

Another notable achievement in the 4th white paper is the commencement of full-scale legal actions against illegal sites and operators. Legal actions are underway against multiple overseas illegal sites. Currently, the operators of the Chinese illegal distribution sites ‘L’ and ‘Yi’ have been identified, and documents have been submitted to the Chinese Internet Court. Temporary account freezing measures and preparations for criminal lawsuits are in progress against illegal site operators in Thailand. In South America, responses have been initiated against four major illegal webtoon sites in collaboration with the Copyright Overseas Advancement Association (COA).

Kakao Entertainment collaborates with its branches and affiliates in each country to provide operator information identified at headquarters and conducts civil and criminal legal actions through local judicial authorities and law firms.

A close communication channel with copyright holders, the creators, has also been established. Since July last year, Kakao Entertainment has been sending copyright protection letters quarterly to creators supplying works to Kakao Entertainment, sharing infringement results for about 600 exclusive works from over 100 CP companies. Kakao Entertainment plans to gradually expand the recipients of these letters.

Changes are also occurring in communication with users through social networking service (SNS) channels. Due to copyright awareness improvement activities conducted since the publication of the 2nd white paper, users have become local collaborators who voluntarily make efforts to self-regulate or discover and report illegal contents and illegal site operators, minimizing blind spots in enforcement monitoring.

Lee Ho-jun, head of Kakao Entertainment’s Illegal Distribution Response Team (P.CoK), stated, "This year, we will focus on apprehending operators by collaborating with domestic and international investigative agencies and establishing processes to identify illegal site operators, fulfilling our responsibility to protect copyrights to minimize the physical and mental suffering experienced by webtoon and web novel creators due to illegal distribution."

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