Webtoon Publisher Naver Seeks Legal Action Against 160+ Piracy Sites

As a long-time gamer and avid fan of webtoons, I must say it’s high time someone took action against these piracy sites that have been leeching off the creative works of talented artists for far too long. It’s like playing an RPG where you slay monsters only to find out there’s a new horde spawning just around the corner.

The company that owns Webtoon is planning to sue over 170 unauthorized websites worldwide, as these sites have been illegally distributing Webtoons for years. Originating from South Korea, Japan, and China, web comics have gained immense popularity. Naver, the owner of Webtoon Entertainment, has invested in this field and recently went public on the stock market. Now, they are taking steps to protect their intellectual property by initiating legal actions against these piracy sites.

According to a recent SEC disclosure, Naver and Webtoon Entertainment are intensely scrutinizing the issue of piracy, as their share prices have experienced a significant decline over the past few weeks. The following is a summary of the company’s filing regarding this matter:

In the digital age where content spreads far and wide across the web, it’s clear that threats like piracy, gray market sales, illegal downloading, file-sharing, and intellectual property violations are on the rise. To shield our creative works from such unauthorized use, we employ a variety of strategies. This includes crafting unique technology to spot piracy and implementing other advanced measures for monitoring and protection.

After submitting the required SEC filing, Webtoon Entertainment is keen on obtaining details about the unauthorized platforms distributing its content, often referred to as piracy sites. This week, a DMCA subpoena was filed by the company in Texas, targeting Cloudfare. The subpoena requests personal information of administrators managing several piracy sites. In this DMCA subpoena, approximately 170 unique domains are specified, including some of the most frequented manga and webtoon piracy sites within the U.S.

“This subpoena aims to uncover the identities of individuals accused of copyright violations who manage the specified domain(s)/website(s) mentioned in the document. The details gathered will be exclusively used for safeguarding the copyright rights of my client.”

At the current moment, it’s uncertain how this subpoena will unfold and what role Cloudfare’s data might have on the accused piracy platforms. Back in November, Webtoon stated that their efforts against piracy sites led to approximately 150 services being shut down. However, the question arises as to whether new piracy platforms emerged to take the place of those dismantled by Naver Webtoon.

2024-08-22 21:10

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