[Naver Webtoon Logo. Photo provided by Naver Webtoon]
[Seoul Economy]
On the 27th, Naver Webtoon received the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award at the 2024 1st Korea Copyright Protection Awards and Copyright Development Contribution Award Ceremony for its efforts in combating illegal distribution of webtoons.
This recognition acknowledges their contributions to supporting the overseas expansion of Korean webtoons and protecting the creative ecosystem since the official service launch in 2005. With the global expansion of the webtoon market and the growth of the webtoon IP-based additional industries, copyright protection has become increasingly crucial. Therefore, Naver Webtoon has been deploying institutional and technological measures to help eradicate the illegal distribution of webtoons and web novels.
Notably, Naver Webtoon has been implementing technical measures to restrict illegal copying by actively introducing DRM solutions for content protection since the early stages of the service.
Since 2017, they have applied their self-developed technology, “Toon Radar,” to the service, which tracks and blocks the initial source of illegal leaks, delaying and blocking the distribution of illegally copied webtoons both domestically and internationally, while also cooperating in apprehending illegal distributors. According to Naver Webtoon’s 2023 internal statistics, the value of intellectual property protected by Toon Radar amounts to over $200 million annually.
In addition, Naver Webtoon continues to bolster proactive and reactive measures through monitoring, reporting, and legal action.
Last year, for the first time in the industry, they advanced “subpoena” actions through the U.S. courts on behalf of creators, covering all costs, resulting in the shutdown of approximately 150 illegal webtoon sites.
This year, through three subpoena actions, they successfully halted the activities of about 70 overseas illegal webtoon sites. According to traffic statistics site “SimilarWeb,” the annual user visit traffic of the 70 affected illegal webtoon sites exceeds 1.3 billion visits as a result of these actions.
In October, they preemptively filed a lawsuit seeking damages totaling 1 billion KRW against operators of illegal webtoon and web novel sites, declaring a strong stance on copyright infringement with a zero-tolerance policy.
Kim Gyu-nam, Naver Webtoon’s Vice President (CRO), expressed his award acceptance remarks by saying, “Halting illegal site activities not only protects Naver Webtoon works but also has the significance of protecting the entire industry,” and added, “We will continue to do our utmost to find what the platform can do for copyright protection.”