"Strict Punishment for Webtoon Illegal Distribution Operators" Petition by 7 Webtoon Companies

Yonhap News

Seven domestic webtoon companies, including Kakao Entertainment, Naver Webtoon, Ridibooks, Kidari Studio, Lezhin Entertainment, Topco, and Toomics, have called for strict punishment of illegal webtoon site operators.

The seven companies belonging to the Webtoon Illegal Distribution Response Council announced on the 11th that they submitted a petition to the Daejeon District Court, hoping that Mr. A, the operator of the illegal sites Ajitoon and Ajitoon Novel, would receive severe punishment.

Ajitoon and Ajitoon Novel are identified as the largest illegal webtoon and web novel distribution sites in Korea. Since 2021, they are known to have infringed copyrights on 750,000 webtoon episodes and 2,510,000 web novel episodes.

Earlier in August, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office cooperated in the investigation, resulting in Mr. A's arrest and the closure of the sites. The prosecution indicted Mr. A on charges of violating copyright law, and the first trial for Mr. A will be held on the 12th.

The petition stated, "The defendant's criminal acts not only constitute copyright infringement against individual copyright holders but also seriously damage the K-content industry ecosystem," and "We earnestly hope for severe punishment to sound an alarm against illegal distribution of K-content."

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