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Korean Court Upholds Prison Sentence for Operator Behind Major Webtoon Piracy Site OKTOON
posted on by Wonhee Cho
South Korea's Supreme Court has finalized a prison sentence for the operator behind some of the country's largest illegal content distribution sites, including the notorious webtoon piracy platform OKTOON, marking a significant legal milestone in the fight against webtoon copyright infringement.
According to Korean news agency Newsis, the Supreme Court dismissed the final appeal filed by the defendant, identified only as A, who had been convicted of violating the Copyright Act. With the appeal rejected, the defendant's 4.5-year prison sentence handed down by the appellate court has been upheld, along with the confiscation of cryptocurrency assets and an additional approximately 374 million won (approximately US$280,000) in criminal proceeds.
While the case initially drew public attention for the illegal streaming site Nunu TV, prosecutors confirmed that the same operator also ran OKTOON, a large-scale illegal webtoon distribution site, between October 2023 and November 2024. OKTOON was widely known for uploading vast quantities of webtoons without authorization and monetizing them through illegal advertising.
Courts found that the defendant systematically uploaded more than 800,000 webtoon episodes, alongside hundreds of thousands of pirated video files, over several years for commercial gain. Judges emphasized that webtoon piracy causes irreversible harm, noting that webtoons — unlike other media — are rarely re-consumed once illegally accessed, making financial recovery for creators nearly impossible.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court stated that the defendant's arguments failed to meet the legal standards required for review, effectively ending the case without further examination of evidence. The decision leaves intact the lower court's finding in November that the crimes were organized, prolonged, and escalated over time, including the launch of new piracy sites after earlier ones were shut down.
The Webtoon Illegal Distribution Response Council, a coalition that includes major platforms such as Naver Webtoon and Kakao Entertainment, welcomed the decision, calling it “a clear warning that large-scale webtoon piracy will be met with severe punishment.” The group reiterated that illegal webtoon distribution undermines creator livelihoods and threatens the sustainability of the entire digital comics ecosystem.
The Copyright Crime Forensic Investigation Team under Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) conducted a full-scale investigation into Korea's largest copyright-infringing website, "Nunu TV," as well as its illegal sister websites "TVWiki" and "OKTOON," and the operator of the websites. "A" was arrested in November 2024.
In March 2025, seven major webtoon companies — Kakao Entertainment, Naver WEBTOON, RIDI, Lezhin Entertainment, Kidari Studio, Toptoon, and Toomics — came together to call for strict legal action against the OKTOON operator.
The November 2025 sentence of 4.5 years from the Daejeon High Court's Criminal Appeals Division was harsher than the initial three-year term issued by a lower court in May 2025.
Source: Newsis (Jung-min Yoon, Jung-hyun Kim)
