Kakao Entertainment has come forward to eradicate the culture of illegal distribution of webtoons

Through the response team, we succeeded in closing the overseas site.

Kakao Entertainment explained that the illegal distribution response team (Pikok, P.CoK) led the closure of “Mangaku,” one of the largest illegal webtoons sites in Southeast Asia, as a major crackdown result in the first quarter. In the first quarter, Pikok blocked four large illegal webtoons and web novel sites in the Anglo-American region, Southeast Asia, and Brazil, including “Mangaku.”

Mangaku is one of the largest illegal webtoons in Southeast Asia with 18 million monthly visits. It has been distributing at least hundreds of K-weptons for 17 years since 2008. Since crackdown is impossible unless identified, operators have consistently responded to numerous warnings and requests from copyright holders.

Kakao Entertainment said that the 17-year history of illegal distribution operations ended in a week after successfully identifying the identity with its own technology and directly contacting them with warnings. The operator voluntarily shut down the website and community, declaring the suspension of activities.

Kakao Enter has voluntarily shut down the site with its operator-specific technology, including illegal sites for large British and American webtoons with about 1.2 million monthly visits and the illegal site for Brazilian webtoons “Norte Rose Scan,” which has been operating for more than two years.

In some cases, the site was successfully closed by directly requesting the global platform. Bluebells in Bloom, an illegal website for British-American web novels operated by the WordPress blog, took measures to remove the site after Kakao Entertainment reported it to WordPress and requested copyright protection.

An official from Kakao Entertainment said, “We have a response system for a wide range of channels, including websites, private communities, and social media, targeting the world. As a total of 25 illegal sites have been closed by the illegal distribution response team, the pace of crackdown is getting faster,” adding, “As illegal distribution occurs around the world, we plan to actively cooperate with related agencies and investigative agencies to pursue joint legal action.”

SALLY LEE

US ASIA JOURNAL