WEBTOON is fighting against piracy and copyright infringement with a zero-tolerance approach. The lawsuit seeks damages in Korea worth 1 billion won (~$700,000 USD). The targets are illegal websites and those who are operating them.
Right now, three defendants have been named in the lawsuits; however, their names have not been publicly released. Defendant #1 is being charged with operating multiple piracy sites from December 2020 to July 2023. This defendant was arrested in September 2023.
Defendants #2 and #3, who are also being charged with operating multiple piracy sites, are believed to be the same person. This is based on the fact that both were arrested at the same time. Each case is seeking damages of 500 million won each.
Using their Toon Radar technology, WEBTOON carries out pre-piracy countermeasures by embedding invisible information into webtoons to identify leakers. WEBTOON has previously filed subpoena requests with Cloudflare, targeting 170 alleged piracy sites. TOHO and Aniplex are now employing similar tactics to help combat piracy.
The sites targeted by WEBTOON alone reported 100 million combined monthly page visits in just August alone. WEBTOON is the first company to have a subpoena of this nature executed through U.S. courts.
Source: CBR
