170+ Pirate Domains Targeted by Webtoon Entertainment via DMCA Subpoena

• Webtoon Entertainment targeted 170 unique pirate domains that allegedly violated intellectual property rights.
• The copyright-infringing websites were hit with a DMCA subpoena that required Cloudflare to expose their operators’ details.
• Among these pirate domains are several widely popular names.

Webtoon Entertainment, one of the prime hosting platforms for short digital comics, targeted north of 170 unique pirate websites through a recent DMCA subpoena, including those related to popular sites such as Bato.to, Mangareader.to, and Mangas.in. The subpoena could help reveal the identity of the alleged copyright infringers connected to the pirate sites.

A recent 10-Q form filing revealed that Webtoon fears an increased risk of violation of the firm’s intellectual property, including gray market sales, piracy, illegal downloading, file-sharing, and misappropriation.

Sometimes, the company tackles piracy with cease-and-desist letters and legal threats, and the recently submitted DMCA subpoena at a Texas federal court required the personal customer details linked to allegedly infringing domain names to be delivered by CDN service Cloudflare.

The U.S.-based Internet infrastructure company has until October 1 to respond, and previous cases proved it does not refuse to divulge user details to authorities.

Webtoon says these copyright-infringing websites were detected via proprietary technology and other technological measures. 

Webtoon’s first quarterly earnings report on August 8 saw no increase in revenue compared to the previous year, leading to many disappointed investors and a more than 40% loss in the stock price.

Since the company focuses on growth, it considers the rogue operators to hinder its ascension to success. However, while pirate websites were not mentioned in the Webtoon report, they are surely considered a challenge.

In November 2023, Naver Webtoon said a then-issued subpoena shut down about 150 overseas illegal sites.

The company harbors millions of creators and has approximately 170 million active monthly users. Launched two decades ago, Webtoon Entertainment is owned partially by the South Korean company Naver and went public on the Nasdaq exchange in June.

This month, the operators of 31 pirate manga websites distributing Kakao Entertainment’s “webtoon” comics were identified. The illegal domains were shut down by the company’s Illegal Distribution Response Team (P.CoK) anti-piracy unit.