문화체육관광부 저작권범죄과학수사대가 국내 최대 규모의 저작권 침해 웹사이트 ‘누누티비’와 후속 불법 웹사이트 ‘티비위키’, ‘오케이툰(OKTOON)’에 대한 전방위적인 수사를 펼쳐 운영자를 검거(구속 송치)했다.
.jpg)
▲Photo of the scene where the operator of 'Nunu TV' was arrested
Unauthorized copying of official webtoon platform works, elaborate criminal methods
The operator of 'Nunu TV', the largest copyright infringement website in Korea that was violating copyright by copying works from official webtoon platforms without permission, has been arrested.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Copyright Crime Scientific Investigation Unit announced on the 16th that it had conducted a comprehensive investigation into the largest copyright infringement website in Korea, 'Nunu TV', and the subsequent illegal websites 'TV Wiki' and 'OKTOON', and arrested (detained and sent to prosecution) their operators.
Nunu TV has become a social problem by posting K-content without permission to promote gambling sites. Even after the site was shut down in April 2023, its impact was so great that it spawned numerous similar sites, and the operator expanded his crimes by operating TV Wiki and OK Toon.
In order to eradicate illegal copyright infringement sites such as Nunu TV, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced measures to eradicate illegal distribution of K-content in July of last year and succeeded in arresting the operator after 1 year and 4 months.
The domains of Nunu TV, TV Wiki, and OK Toon were all confiscated, and the access paths were changed to the confiscation information page to block the transmission of unauthorized copies of copyrighted works.
This arrest is the result of close cooperation between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office, the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, the National Intelligence Service, the Korean branch of the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), and local overseas investigative agencies.
In particular, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Copyright Crime Scientific Investigation Unit identified and arrested the operator by utilizing financial, virtual asset, and communication tracking investigations and server analysis, as well as its own data analysis tools.
At the scene of the seizure and search, two luxury vehicles, watches, and virtual assets such as Bitcoin were seized as proceeds of crime.
The operator of Nunu TV established close ties with an illegal gambling site operation organization, built overseas servers, and used multiple virtual private networks (VPNs), overseas credit cards, and virtual asset exchanges to evade investigation by the authorities.
In order to operate OKToon, they displayed elaborate criminal methods such as copying and posting works from official webtoon platforms without permission.
Jeong Hyang-mi, director of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Copyright Bureau, said, “This arrest is the greatest achievement in our measures to eradicate illegal distribution of K-content, and is a case that shows that operators of illegal websites that threaten the rights of domestic creators cannot escape the investigation net.” She added, “The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will continue to cooperate with relevant ministries and strengthen international joint investigations to do its best to protect the legitimate rights of creators.”