One of the largest manga and Webtoon piracy sits, M, may be closed soon as Kakao has identified the operators of the site after five years of tracking. Manga, Webtoon, and anime piracy has been one of the key defining issues of the current era of the mediums, and that continues to grow over the years as more series begin to release their works each year. But in recent years, key publishers have been working together to take legal action against some of the biggest sites. According to a recent report, Kakao has been working on this for five years.
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According to a new report from KBS (as spotted by @MangaMoguraRE on X) Kakao Entertainment, the publisher of massively popular comics such as Solo Leveling, has spent five years investigating into the identities of those behind M, a popular piracy site that has catalogued over 20,000 Japanese comics and 7,000 Korean comics. Accruing about 15 billion page views last October, damage is estimated to cost the industry about 3 trillion won (about 2.3 billion USD) every month.
Top Piracy Site Likely Shutting Down
According to the report, suspect identities have been found for three of its executives, including the founder. Kakao Entertainment said the following about the update, “If we identify the operator, we will be able to take civil and criminal action against each individual for violating copyright law, which will likely lead to a more fundamental solution to the problem of illegal distribution.” As KBS also notes, this is part of Kakao Entertainment’s efforts to work together with Japan on a larger solution to the issue.
Fans likely have noticed a greater effort to combat piracy in the last few years especially as not only are publishers working towards having more availability for each of their works through official online sources, but through the teamwork mentioned by Kakao Entertainment in this report. Both the Korean and Japanese comics industries are becoming more of a worldwide endeavor, and it’s these efforts that the publishers behind them are also trying to protect by limiting piracy with legal action where they can. But identifying the suspects is only the start in a much a longer process.
How do you feel about this announcement from Kakao Entertainment? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
