Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light, though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning they, do not go gentle into that good night.
Korean-Vietnamese crackdown shuts down webtoon piracy network
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
By Jhoo Dong-chan
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.
The crackdown is being praised as a landmark achievement for public-private partnerships and international judicial cooperation against cross-border intellectual property (IP) theft. The culture ministry and Korea Copyright Protection Service collaborated with tech giant Naver Webtoon early on to secure digital evidence and identify the suspects. Korean officials then activated Interpol’s Stop Online Piracy channel and signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security to tighten the noose.
The turning point came when the Vietnamese government launched a nationwide IP enforcement campaign. Following a March visit to Vietnam by a Korean joint delegation to emphasize the severity of the piracy network, Vietnamese authorities accelerated their timeline. By mid-May, cybercrime units and Ho Chi Minh City police interrogated two suspects and seized all physical servers, completely cutting off access to the illegal domains.
The Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam plans to formally indict the two suspects as soon as the initial investigations conclude. South Korean authorities and Naver Webtoon have pledged to assist the prosecution by handling copyright authentication procedures.
"This case sets a successful precedent for public-private and international cooperation in responding to overseas infringement of K-content," said Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Chae Hwi-young. "We will continue to strengthen international networks to ensure that our creators' hard work is legally protected and fairly valued worldwide."
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.