Officials from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency work with Vietnamese counterparts in Ho Chi Minh City to probe webtoon piracy websites. Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
A massive overseas digital piracy network that illegally distributed Korean webtoons, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, has been dismantled through a joint investigation by Korean and Vietnamese authorities.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Friday that, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, it successfully shut down three major illegal streaming websites and arrested two local operators. The targeted operations are estimated to have inflicted annual damages of roughly 207.2 billion won ($151 million) on the industry.
The three shuttered platforms specifically targeted Korean intellectual property, with webtoons accounting for approximately 70 percent of their total hosted content. Operating since January 2023, the platforms unlawfully translated Korean webtoons into English and broadcasted them to a global audience spanning Asia, North America and Europe. By amassing a staggering 1.1 billion annual visitors, the operators generated substantial illicit revenue through embedded banner advertisements.
