Seoul, July 16, 2024 – Kakao Entertainment is the first Korean entertainment company to be officially recognized as a member of Google’s Trusted Copyright Removal Program (TCRP). The designation, which was granted by Google on July 9^th, acknowledges the substantial achievements of Kakao Entertainment’s Illegal Distribution Response Team, P.CoK – the first of its kind in the webtoon and web novel industries – which has actively been combating illegal content in Korea and in markets around the world. With this remarkable milestone, Kakao Entertainment plans to intensify its global anti-piracy efforts.

TCRP is an intellectual property (IP) protection program set up by Google that partners with companies that have a proven record of consistently supplying Google with high volume, verifiable data on illegal distribution. Currently, approximately 200 companies and organizations worldwide are engaged in combating piracy and, according to Google’s 2018 “How Google Fights Piracy” report, only 178 of those had been granted TCRP partner status as of 2017.

Kakao Entertainment’s selection as a TCRP partner signifies global recognition of P.CoK’s efforts to combat copyright infringement. This includes the semi-annual publication of in-depth whitepapers on the company’s work to combat content piracy. The report shares P.CoK’s copyright protection expertise with the industry, spotlighting a systematic piracy response process that has resulted in 240 million successful content takedowns globally between 2019 and 2023.

The TCRP partnership also enables Kakao Entertainment to accelerate anti-piracy efforts. Non-TCRP members are limited in the number of illegal content notifications they can make to Google each day. They also face longer processing times. On contrast, TCRP members can easily submit copyright infringement notifications in bulk. And, as a holder of IP, Kakao Entertainment can also execute direct takedown actions.

Copyright infringement notifications can be broadly categorized into two types: direct notices by copyright owners and platforms, and indirect notices via specialized anti-piracy monitoring companies. Most of the qualified TCRP partners in Korea are specialized in infringement response, and many companies engaged in countering illegal distribution are reporting indirectly through these specialized companies.

Through P.CoK, Kakao Entertainment is also formulating plans to gradually expand the scope of its global crackdown on illegal content beyond webtoons and web novels, with a comprehensive infringement response strategy covering all its intellectual property.

“Our selection as TCRP partner was possible thanks to P.CoK’s pioneering efforts, which continue to result in a consistent and substantial track record of copyright protection success,” said Lee Hojun, Head of legal department of Kakao Entertainment. “TCRP has proven instrumental in streamlining high-volume submissions of copyright notifications and, as an IP holder responsible for protecting the works of our artists, we will redouble our commitment to eradicating widespread illegal distribution globally with this partnership.”