South Korean operator of infamous K-drama, webtoon pirate sites charged, luxury cars seized
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The Noonoo TV website terminated its services in April 2023 amid the South Korean government crackdown.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
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SEOUL – The person behind the operation of Noonoo TV, a recently shut down online video streaming network that distributed pirated K-dramas, has been indicted on charges of large-scale copyright violations, the South Korean government said on Dec 16.
According to the South Korean Culture Ministry’s Copyright Bureau, the unnamed South Korean national is currently in custody, with the first court hearing scheduled for Jan 6.
The suspect was caught on Nov 9, in an anti-piracy crackdown which saw collaborations between domestic and international authorities including the Culture Minister, South Korean prosecutors and police, the National Intelligence Service, the South Korean branch of US Homeland Security Investigations, and Interpol.
The authorities seized the suspect’s assets including two luxury cars, a luxury watch, and cyber assets such as Bitcoin.
In addition to Noonoo TV, the suspect was found to have been operating other illegal online piracy networks, all of which have been shut down and their domains seized.
The authorities had trouble tracking down those responsible for operating Noonoo TV and its sister websites due to the servers being located outside of the Korean authorities’ jurisdiction.
According to the South Korean Culture Ministry, the companies had eight servers for media content and two servers for webtoons located in countries like the Dominican Republic and Paraguay.
The operator collected content by subscribing to various video platforms – using memberships under other people’s names – and sending it to the servers abroad.
The suspect had also used virtual private networks, credit cards and virtual asset exchange services based outside Korea to prevent the tracking of local investigators.
“This incident shows that illegal websites cannot escape the investigation of the Culture Ministry’s copyrights investigative team... we will continue to work with related agencies to further our international investigation, protecting the rights of content creators,” said the ministry’s copyright bureau chief Jung Hyang-mi.
After its launch in 2021, Noonoo TV was among the most infamous platforms of pirated popular video content ranging from movies, dramas and animations to exclusive over-the-top media content. The website terminated its services in April 2023 amid the South Korean government crackdown.
The Alliance For Protection of Videogram, formed by local broadcasters, streaming services, movie producers and distributors, filed a complaint against the illegal network in 2023, claiming it had garnered 1.5 billion views as of February that year. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
