Naver Webtoon Shuts Down Illegal Spanish-Language Site... First Overseas Success for Domestic Industry

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Naver Webtoon announced on the 27th that, in cooperation with the Copyright Overseas Advancement Association (COA) and major domestic webtoon platforms, it has shut down a major overseas website that had been providing illegal services in Spanish.

This is the first case in which webtoon rights holders have achieved results by responding according to local laws overseas. Naver Webtoon, along with Kakao Entertainment, Lezhin Entertainment, Ridi, Kidari Studio, Toomics, and Topcomedia, identified the local Spanish operators through direct investigation, and COA worked with local investigative authorities and the court to bring about the shutdown.

The closed website was a large-scale illegal webtoon site based in Spanish, operating multiple services. Last month alone, it recorded approximately 86 million monthly visits. The content industry estimates that damages caused by these websites amount to several tens of billions of won. The case is now set to proceed to a formal criminal trial.

Naver Webtoon is preemptively blocking illegal copies through its AI-based anti-piracy technology, 'Toon Radar,' and is simultaneously pursuing a "simultaneous serialization" strategy for both Korean and global services. A company representative stated, "For works where simultaneous serialization was introduced, paid transaction volume increased by more than 200% compared to before hiatus."

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