Kakao Entertainment said on the 27th that it published the ninth white paper on countering illegal distribution, which includes an introduction to and results of the industry's first comprehensive copyright protection system, "Dark Chaser."
Dark Chaser is a system Kakao Entertainment developed in-house based on years of accumulated data and technical know-how in responding to illegal distribution. As illegal distribution methods have become more sophisticated—such as domain changes and bypass access on illegal sites—the company moved beyond the previous approach centered on post-fact takedowns to consolidate the entire process, from content detection and reporting to confirmation of processing results, domain tracking, and response history management, into a single chain.
In particular, it analyzes infringement patterns and linkages between sites to detect repeated infringements and signs of new leaks at an early stage. This implements the "TTT" strategy disclosed in last year's seventh white paper as an actual system. It consolidates everything into one framework, from identifying illegal sites and tracking operators to shutting down sites and pursuing legal action.
It also goes beyond deleting illegal content by identifying the initial leaker and advancing its proprietary watermarking technology to prevent repeated leaks.
Dark Chaser, which began as a beta version at the end of 2025, has been upgraded step by step and now monitors about 16,000 Kakao Entertainment webtoon and web novel IPs around the world 24/7. It manages multilingual keyword detection, domain change tracking, and analyses of repeated infringement patterns on a single dashboard.
The company said this enables it to grasp the scale and repetitiveness of copyright infringement, visually confirm response priorities, and respond quickly, including through cooperation with relevant domestic and international agencies.
Kakao Entertainment plans to continuously analyze the data accumulated through operating "Dark Chaser" to further advance the system, and to further strengthen leak prevention functions and a guidance framework for copyright protection information for creators and content providers (CP).
Since launching "Peacock," the industry's first dedicated unit for countering illegal distribution, in 2021, Kakao Entertainment has been regularly publishing a white paper to share its response results and know-how with the industry while advancing its copyright protection framework based on proprietary technology.
A Kakao Entertainment official said, "Through this white paper, we unveiled our in-house developed 'Dark Chaser' for the first time and presented the direction for a copyright protection framework that enables even preemptive prevention," and added, "We will continue to enhance our technology and expand cooperation with relevant agencies and global organizations to build a content ecosystem where creators and users can feel secure."