Overseas piracy of K-content nears 500 mil. cases in 2025: lawmaker
The number of Korean content that was illegally distributed overseas reached nearly 500 million cases last year, the highest number since 2022, a lawmaker said Monday. The number of reported cases hit 493.6 million in 2025, up 19.2 percent from the previous year, according to the data submitted to Rep. Jeong Jun-ho of the ruling Democratic Party by the Korea Copyright Protection Agency. The…
In 2025, Korean copyrighted material was illegally distributed over 500 million times overseas, reaching its highest level since 2022, according to lawmaker Rep. Jeong Jun-ho. The Korea Copyright Protection Agency reported 493.6 million piracy cases, a 19.2% increase from the prior year. This figure surpassed the previous high of 477.1 million cases in 2022, when the agency started tracking the data.
Webtoon piracy constituted the largest share at 66.5%, followed by films and broadcasts at 33.5%. English-speaking regions accounted for 46.6% of reported cases, while Chinese and Southeast Asian languages each made up 20.4% and 15.7% respectively. Interestingly, despite a 17 percentage point decline in English language piracy, the share of content pirated in Southeast Asian and European languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Spanish, and French, grew.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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