South Korea continues its aggressive efforts to curb piracy by raiding and shutting down the country's largest illegal online novel distributor, which houses some 2.5 million online novels.
Korea.kr reports that “Ajitun,” South Korea’s largest distributor of illegal web novels, has been arrested and its website shut down following a raid this week. Ajitun has been distributing web novels and web comics on a large scale for three years, with the site being designated as a major government target due to its size. Its operator used multiple sites on multiple domains, hosting a massive library of 2,509,963 web novels and 746,835 web comics, which have now been seized. An image from the police raid and more information can be seen below.
South Korean illegal novel and comic website Ajitun shut down in massive piracy crackdown
Ajitun's operator was previously known to police due to his criminal record. Ironically, he started the site during his probation, hosting illegal files on Latvian servers via a VPN. He used a Chinese PayPal account to pay for the servers, registered his mobile phone and internet connection under a false name, and rented a workplace that he would visit periodically. He was eventually arrested in a joint operation by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office, which plans to seek substantial damages to recover proceeds of crime and prevent repeat offenses. It is estimated that Ajitun earned around 120 million won (~US$90,000) in six months through advertisements that included illegal gambling and prostitution.
Japan and South Korea to Continue Crackdown on Anime & Manga Piracy in 2024
This year has seen continued toughening of stances between Japan and South Korea against piracy. Ajitun was previously the largest distributor of illegal web novels in South Korea. Meanwhile, Japan also finally convicted Romi Hoshino this year — the operator of Japan's former largest manga piracy site, Mangamura. Hoshino was ordered in April to pay 1.7 billion yen (~US$11 million), marking the largest fine in Japanese history. It is estimated that the site was visited 537 million times, with a maximum economic cost of 320 billion yen (~US$2.2 billion).
Japan and South Korea's approach to piracy crackdowns extends beyond their borders. Anti-piracy agencies from both countries have teamed up to carry out a series of raids in Brazil, in cooperation with law enforcement. The results of those raids were revealed just this week, with 16 anime piracy sites with 100 million visits each being forced to shut down.
Source: Korea.kr via Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism X (formerly Twitter)
