Illegal webtoon site caused US$37 million in losses according to companies
© MCST
Seven major webtoon companies — Kakao Entertainment, Naver WEBTOON, RIDI, Lezhin Entertainment, Kidari Studio, Toptoon, and Toomics — have come together to call for strict legal action against the operator of the illegal webtoon site OKToon.
The Webtoon Anti-Piracy Coalition, which represents these companies, submitted a petition to the Daejeon District Court on March 12, urging for the maximum legal penalty against OKToon’s operator, who is referred to in legal documents as suspect “A.”
OKTOON is known for uploading webtoons without auhorization and for making a profit from them. The operator of OKTOON used a particularly meticulous method by collecting user accounts from legitimate domestic webtoon platforms from unspecified persons and then illegally copying and posting the webtoon content.
According to The Webtoon Anti-Piracy Coalition, OKToon illegally distributed about 10,000 webtoons, amounting to 800,000 episodes, causing an estimated financial loss of about US$37 million to the webtoon industry. In addition to operating OKToon, the suspect “A” was also behind NunuTV, a well-known illegal streaming site.
The coalition emphasized that “A” immediately launched OKToon and TVWiki after NunuTV was shut down in 2023. They warned that if “A” receives only a lenient sentence, similar illegal platforms will continue to emerge. The coalition stated, “If the punishment is too light, ‘the second NunuTV’ and ‘the third OKToon’ will keep appearing. The operator must receive the maximum penalty proportional to the financial damage caused.”
“A” was arrested in November 2023 following a joint investigation involving the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism’s Copyright Crime Forensics Unit, prosecutors, and Interpol. The third trial hearing is scheduled for March 20 at the Daejeon District Court.
Source: YNA (Kyung-yoon Kim)
