In October, Naver Webtoon filed a lawsuit 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.’
Naver Webtoon filed the lawsuits before knowing the identities of the individual operators, and acknowledged that Defendants 2 and 3 might be the same person operating different sites.
About the defendants
According to the complaint submitted by Naver Webtoon to the Suwon District Court, Defendant 1 operated multiple illegal webtoon sites, including ‘Monkey Yeah’, from December 2020 to July 2023, and was arrested by the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency in September 2023. The final criminal verdict was handed down in May 2024. Naver Webtoon requested 500 million won from Defendant 1 as compensation for damages.
The Copyright Crime Scientific Investigation Unit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism arrested Defendants 2 and 3 in December 2023. Naver Webtoon stated in the complaint that “According to the press release of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Defendant 2, the operator of ‘Shelter Yeah’, and Defendant 3, the operator of ‘Yeah Blue’, are presumed to be the same person,” and announced that they would jointly request 500 million won.
Based on the news of the arrest of the defendants, Naver Webtoon preemptively filed a lawsuit for damages while the defendants were still unknown, judging that they could identify the defendants. They plan to request the relevant agencies to send documents and apply for document submission orders to identify the defendants, and to increase the amount of the claim as the illegal activities are identified.
In November 2023, Naver Webtoon became the first webtoon company to issue ‘subpoenas’ through a U.S. court, resulting in the complete deletion or temporary suspension of operations of approximately 150 illegal sites. As of October 2024, one subpoena procedure had been completed, and three subpoena procedures were in progress.
Anti-piracy efforts
Naver Webtoon claims to be the only webtoon and web novel distribution platform in the Republic of Korea that simultaneously conducts pre- and post-piracy countermeasures.
They independently researched and developed a system that they call ‘Toon Radar,’ which identifies and blocks the first illegal leakers by inserting invisible user identification information into webtoon images. Toon Radar has been in service to track illegal webtoon copies at home and abroad since July 2017.
According to Naver Webtoon’s own statistics, the copyrights protected by Toon Radar by delaying the illegal distribution of major works are worth at least $200 million annually when converted into economic value.
In addition to technical preemptive measures, Naver Webtoon also undertakes legal measures such as sending warnings to illegal sites through strong monitoring and post-reporting, and also issues ‘subpoenas’ to illegal site server intermediaries such as content delivery networks (CDNs) and hosting companies.
Further reading
Naver Webtoon files lawsuit demanding 1 billon won in damages “Complete zero-tolerance principle.” Press release (in Korean). October 22, 2024. Naver Webtoon (Korea)
Why it matters
In a prepared statement, Naver Webtoon Vice President Kim Gyu-nam said, “Naver Webtoon will do its best to protect creators by responding strictly based on the principle of complete zero tolerance against the distribution of illegal content.”
Compared with lawsuits filed in the United States and elsewhere, the damages sought by Naver Webtoon are small. However, collection of damages is more likely than it would be if the offenders had been liable for millions of dollars or more, which is common in US piracy lawsuits. In the US, copyright advocates like IBCAP ask for huge settlements in order to put the pirate out of business rather to collect damages.
