S. Korea creates dedicated copyright enforcement unit to crack down on piracy

South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will establish a dedicated investigative unit to combat copyright infringement involving the illegal distribution of content.

The ministry said Tuesday that the cabinet approved an amendment to its organizational decree creating the Copyright Special Judicial Police Division and adding eight copyright protection personnel. The changes take effect June 30.

The copyright special judicial police force was introduced in 2008 to investigate copyright crimes. In October 2023, the ministry reorganized its copyright protection bureau into four teams — an international cooperation investigation team, a planned investigation team, a domestic crime investigation team and an investigation support team — and launched the Copyright Crime Forensic Investigation Unit.

Recognizing that illegal content distribution largely operates through overseas servers, the unit has worked to combat piracy of K-content by forging MOUs with law enforcement agencies in key countries, starting with a trilateral MOU signed in 2021 among the ministry, the Korean National Police Agency and Interpol.

As a result, the unit secured the shutdown and arrest of operators behind NuNuTV, South Korea's largest illegal streaming site, in 2024, as well as the illegal webtoon site Ajitoon, and last year the Telegram channel "Yubin Archive," which illegally distributed domestic study materials.

On June 11, authorities also extradited from Japan the operator of an illegal manga-sharing site who had obtained Japanese citizenship. The reorganized unit plans to uncover the methods and operational structures behind copyright crimes and pursue the full recovery of criminal proceeds.

The new division will also be responsible for developing and implementing investigation plans for copyright infringement crimes, collecting and analyzing domestic and international intelligence related to such crimes, coordinating with relevant domestic and foreign agencies on copyright crime investigations, and cracking down on illegal copies as well as collecting, disposing of and deleting them.

Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young said the current copyright protection bureau has faced limitations in efficiently carrying out its work because it combines policy functions with direct criminal investigation. "With a strengthened copyright protection organization, we will pursue copyright infringers to the end to eradicate one of the biggest obstacles to the development of the cultural industry," Choi said.