Naver Webtoon, a South Korean company, recently made headlines after a three-year investigation in the United States. They filed a DMCA subpoena to uncover the identities of over 350 ‘pirate’ websites illegally sharing their comics. After obtaining personal details of the site operators from Cloudflare, Naver Webtoon reported that about 150 of these sites, attracting 2.5 billion visits annually, shut down. This impressive feat is notable because Cloudflare, which provides reverse proxy services to websites, often has limited information on these operators.The scale of Naver Webtoon’s action is unprecedented. They claimed to have halted the activities of 150 overseas illegal sites after issuing a subpoena through a U.S. court. This achievement is significant, especially considering that obtaining useful information from Cloudflare can be challenging. Naver Webtoon’s efforts reportedly led to the closure of major sites like Aquamanga.com, which had around 61 million visits in September alone, and Flamescans.org, another popular site.However, the success of this campaign is nuanced. For instance, one site listed in the subpoena, Newtoki, had numerous variants, which means that the actual number of unique sites might be less than reported. Additionally, while some sites like Flamescans.org did shut down, they hinted at a possible comeback under a different name, indicating the ongoing challenge in fighting digital piracy. Despite these complexities, Naver Webtoon’s crackdown has been effective in reducing traffic to these sites and disrupting their operations. This accomplishment is not only a win for Naver Webtoon but is also seen as beneficial for the entire webtoon industry, which suffers from the impact of illegal websites. The company remains committed to eradicating illegal webtoons and actively taking all possible measures, reflecting the dynamic and ever-evolving battle against online piracy.
