WEBTOON has increased its efforts to fight piracy by taking legal action against websites that share its content illegally.
In August, the major webcomics company with over 170 million users filed new DMCA subpoenas in a Texas federal court, targeting over 170 pirate site operators.
These subpoenas were sent to Cloudflare, a popular service that handles domain registration and content delivery.
WEBTOON’s anti-piracy partner, Remove Your Media, stated that the goal is to protect the company’s copyrights by uncovering the people running these illegal sites.
However, since many operators use fake identities, the effectiveness of these subpoenas may be limited. Still, if successful, Cloudflare has the authority to suspend or shut down these websites.
The websites in question attract millions of visitors each month, making them a significant threat to WEBTOON’s business.
For example, asuratoon.com receives around 56 million visits monthly, while other sites like mangafire.to and Bato.to also see high traffic.
Altogether, these pirate sites draw over 100 million monthly visits. Cloudflare’s role is important, as it can assist rightsholders by directing them to the proper services or providing essential information, such as IP addresses.
To help identify the individuals behind these sites, even if they aren’t directly registered with Cloudflare.
WEBTOON’s actions are part of a broader movement in the entertainment industry to combat piracy.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which includes major companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Sony, has taken similar measures.
ACE has recently focused on anime piracy sites, working with Japanese and Korean anti-piracy organizations to even conduct police raids in Brazil.
Manga publisher Shueisha has launched a survey through its MANGA Plus app to understand how readers access content, both legally and illegally.
These efforts highlight the ongoing struggle of companies to protect their intellectual property in the digital age.
