The online publisher of graphic novels and animated series stopped about 70 illegal sites in 2024 with combined traffic of more than 1.3 billion impressions per year, according to analysis by Similarweb. In 2023 Naver Webtoon had succeeded in closing down about 150 illegal sites. All of these efforts to fight against illegal webtoon sites and protect the creative ecosystem resulted from subpoena measures issued by courts in the United States.
Naver Webtoon has issued subpoenas to one large content delivery network (CDN) and two domain registrars this time, and has confirmed that approximately 70 illegal webtoon sites have been completely deleted or temporarily suspended.
In addition, Naver Webtoon is taking various measures to protect the creative ecosystem and minimize damage to creators caused by illegal webtoon sites as part of the creative ecosystem support program ‘Webtoon With’. Naver Webtoon also internally developed an anti-piracy technology called ‘Toon Radar’, which identifies and blocks the first illegal leaker by inserting invisible user identification information into webtoon images, which has been used to identify illegal instances of their content at home and abroad since July 2017.
In parallel with domestic efforts
In October, Naver Webtoon had filed multiple lawsuits in Korea seeking a total of 1 billion won (about US$700,000) in damages against three defendants who were operating illegal websites that were sharing Anime-style artwork and works of cartoon fiction, including sites called ‘Monkey Yeah,’ Shelter yeah,’ and ‘Yeah Blue.’
Further reading
Naver Webtoon stopped about 70 illegal overseas webtoon sites this year through subpoena measures. Press release (in Korean). November 26, 2024. Naver Webtoon
Korea: Online publisher sues three illegal operators sharing images and graphic novels. Article. by Steven Hawley. October 24, 2024. Piracy Monitor
Why it matters
The subpoena process used by Naver Webtoon to take down these sites is based on the US DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) which allows copyright holders to request service providers to submit personal information of members suspected of copyright infringement in cases of copyright infringement on online services.
Addresses, email addresses, and payment details that can be identified through a subpoena are key information needed to track and arrest illegal site operators, and thus pose a significant threat to the operation of illegal sites. Naver Webtoon is actually sharing all information that helps track illegal webtoon site operators with investigative agencies.
