Kakao Entertainment (Kakao Enter) and the webtoon industry, including Naver Webtoon, submitted a petition calling for harsh punishment of the operator of the illegal webtoon sharing site "OK Toon" on the 12th.
Kakao Enter noted that the Webtoon Illegal Distribution Response Council (Web Council) has been submitting petitions to the Daejeon District Court since the 5th. Currently, seven companies (Kakao Entertainment, Naver Webtoon, Ridii, Lezhin Entertainment, KidariStudio, Toptoon, and Toomics) are affiliated with the Web Council.
According to the petition, OK Toon is one of the domestic copyright infringement websites that has infringed on the copyrights of 10,000 webtoons, totaling 800,000 episodes. The Web Council's internal calculation results indicate that the financial damage caused by the site to the webtoon content industry is estimated to be around 49.4 billion won.
The Daejeon District Court will hold the third trial of the first instance regarding copyright infringement and related charges against the operator of OK Toon on the 20th.
The Web Council explained, "The defendant has also operated the illegal streaming site 'Noonoo TV' before OK Toon, and both the scale and duration of copyright infringement are substantial, and it has actively engaged in operations aimed at profit by promoting its copyright infringement website through a Telegram channel with servers located overseas, making it difficult to identify the individual."
The council continued, "(The defendant) has submitted several insincere letters of remorse to lessen the nature of the crime, and we urgently call for severe punishment to ensure that the damages to copyright holders can be healed, and to raise awareness against illegal distribution of K-content."
Kakao Enter stated, "The current punishment level for illegal site operators is weak compared to the scale of the damage. If the operator of 'OK Toon' receives a low-level punishment, it could be viewed as a penalty that can be easily borne in comparison to significant revenue, leading to the endless emergence of a second 'Noonoo TV' and a third 'OK Toon.'" Previously, the operator of the illegal site 'Azi Toon,' who was a repeat offender, was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit 70 million won.
Kakao Enter remarked, "Many film studios and broadcasting companies are also raising their voices through petitions. We urge that the operator of 'OK Toon' receive the maximum legal penalty corresponding to the amount of damage to eliminate illegal distribution and protect copyright holders."