After operating in Spanish-speaking regions for years, several affiliated illegal websites were successfully shut down, with the support of Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Copyright Overseas Promotion Association (COA); which worked together with leading webtoon companies including Kakao Entertainment, Naver Webtoon, Lezhin Entertainment, RIDI, Kidari Studio, Toomics, and Topco Media.
These sites, including Tumangaonline.com, Lectormanga.com, and Tmofans.com, were among the largest Spanish-language piracy platforms, attracting enormous traffic across Spain and Latin America.
In March 2025 alone, TuMangaOnline recorded approximately 86 million visits, ranking 327th globally, 87th in Spain, and 26th in Mexico according to SimilarWeb. Their popularity rivaled major Spanish news outlets like El País and El Mundo, underscoring the scale of damage inflicted on Korea’s webtoon industry, estimated at hundreds of billions of won.
Anti-piracy methods
Korean rights holders worked tirelessly to identify the operators through OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) methods, eventually locating them in Spain. Based on this information, COA coordinated with local law firms and international IP specialists to pursue criminal charges.
Spanish authorities, after receiving complaints from Korean companies, conducted thorough investigations, secured evidence, and obtained search warrants. The enforcement of these warrants led directly to the shutdown of the illegal sites. Criminal trials are now set to begin in Spain.
Why it matters
This marks the first case where Korean webtoon rights holders achieved enforcement abroad under local law, highlighting the importance of public-private cooperation in combating global copyright infringement.
As Korea’s content industry grows into a key driver of the national economy, safeguarding its value and expanding overseas markets remain critical. Since copyright enforcement abroad often requires private-sector initiative, close cooperation between government and industry is essential.
Further reading
Major Spanish-language piracy site shut down through joint efforts. Press release. April 27, 2026. Copyright Overseas Promotion Association (Korea)
