On August 1, 2023, executives and representatives of the Copyright Overseas promotion Association (COA) of Korea, and from Ltahub, a Brazilian company that protects intellectual property rights in the Latin American region, met at Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA).
COA is a private Korean association established in 2017 to promote overseas distribution and copyright protection of Korean works by bringing together content holders representing Hallyu (Korean Wave) content, including broadcasters, music organizations, Internet businesses, and webtoon production companies.
COA and CODA established a relationship in 2017 to protect copyrights of both countries overseas. Â COA has the support of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), a national administrative agency, and the Korea Copyright Commission (KCC), established under the Korean Copyright Act.
Ltahub is a Brazilian company that assists in the enforcement of rights against infringement, with a mission to protect the intellectual property rights of online content in the Latin American region.
Extending an ongoing initiative?
This meeting is noteworthy in that it surely adds to work that CODA and Ltahub have already done with authorities in Brazil under the umbrella of Operation 404, an anti-piracy initiative hosted by law enforcement and government agencies in Brazil, which has been ongoing since 2019.
Operation 404 has operated in waves that are executed on a roughly annual basis. Â Two Operation 404 spin-offs, called Operation Animes, ran in collaboration with Japanese stakeholders and shut down piracy operations that were distributing copyrighted content from Japan, illegally.
In February 2023 Operation Animes strikes took down six of Brazil’s largest anime pirate sites. Â In parallel, search engines were de-indexed, and pages on social networks were taken down. Â In April, a second phase closed 36 additional Japanese anime pirate sites, which were not for Japanese consumers but for local viewers in Brazil.
Further reading
Intellectual property protection association, COA of Korea and Ltahub of Brazil visited CODA. Â Press release. August 2, 2023. Content Overseas Distribution Association
Brazil: Spin-off of Operation 404 takes down anime pirate Web sites in coordinated strike. Article. February 23, 2023. Piracy Monitor
Operation Animes Part 2: Another 36 anime piracy sites shut down by Brazil Operation 404. Article. April 24, 2023. Piracy Monitor
Why it matters
Collaboration is a critical tool in the fight against global piracy.
Operation Anime has been coordinated between the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), whose members hold rights to Japanese content, and representatives of the Japanese government: the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Agency for Cultural Affairs; Ministry of Communications; and the National Public Policy Agency. Â Police teams from Minas Gerais conducted searches and seizures, in addition to blocking websites
