APEC Copyright Protection Workshop Spotlights Naver Webtoon's Anti-Piracy Technology

Naver Webtoon's copyright protection technology, 'Toon Radar,' was introduced as a best practice for cracking down on illegal streaming at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) international workshop. Kim Gyu-nam, Naver Webtoon's CRO, pointed out the limitations of traditional response methods against evolving illegal webtoon sites and presented their self-developed 'Toon Radar' as a key solution. Toon Radar is a technology that inserts invisible user identification information into webtoon images to track and block illegal leakers. It has been used to track illegal copies both domestically and internationally since 2017, and recently, it has advanced its capabilities to detect signs of illegal copying activities using machine learning technology and proactively block suspicious accounts. Kim CRO emphasized the necessity of international investigative cooperation and strong penalties from judicial authorities, going beyond just shutting down illegal sites to punishing their operators. To this end, Naver Webtoon became the first Korean company and the only webtoon/web novel platform to join ACE (Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment), a global professional organization for copyright protection, earlier this year. Through ACE, which includes major media and entertainment companies such as Netflix, Naver Webtoon is learning strategies to counter illegal content and strengthening international cooperation. Furthermore, since 2023, Naver Webtoon has been implementing subpoena measures through US courts, representing creators and bearing all associated costs, an industry first. This measure halted the activities of approximately 70 illegal sites in 2023 and approximately 150 in 2024, impacting over 3.8 billion annual user visits to a total of approximately 220 sites. The subpoena measures are currently actively underway. These efforts to protect copyright and the creative ecosystem are being promoted as part of Naver Webtoon's 'Webtoon With' program.