▲ This notice announcing the closure of the site and permanent deletion of its content is screenshot and provided by the South Korean culture ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE)(Yonhap)

 

SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Yonhap) -- Three websites in North Africa that illegally distributed large amounts of South Korean webtoons and web novels have been shut down and one operator arrested following an international investigation involving Interpol, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Police Agency, officials said Thursday.

 

The sites included one that illegally distributed webtoons, another that distributed web novels and a third that was linked to the first two and illegally shared copyrighted works.

 

Since July 2024, the three sites had illegally copied and distributed a total of 83,688 pieces of content, including 30,926 recent popular South Korean webtoons, such as "The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call," and 5,202 web novels.

 

K-content accounted for about 57 percent of the illegally distributed material, with annual losses to the K-content industry estimated at around 20 billion won (US$14.5 million), according to industry estimates.

 

There are also concerns about further damage as content illegally scanned and translated into English was subsequently redistributed through other websites.

 

The arrests resulted from cooperation between the ministry's special judicial police for copyright enforcement, the National Police Agency's International Crime Cooperation Bureau, Interpol's I-SOP project and Naver Webtoon.

 

The international investigation began in earnest in March based on a report from Naver Webtoon's in-house infringement monitoring and analysis team.

 

The culture ministry said it will continue to cooperate with local law enforcement authorities to ensure that legal proceedings against the arrested operator proceed smoothly, while also maintaining international cooperation to crack down on additional copyright infringement in neighboring areas.

 

"K-content is gaining global prominence, while copyright infringements targeting it are also becoming increasingly sophisticated and widespread," Kim Jae-hyun, head of the ministry's cultural media industry office, said. "We will further strengthen cooperation with international organizations such as Interpol and overseas law enforcement agencies, while maintaining close communication with the domestic industry to do our utmost to protect the copyrights of K-content."

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]