[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] Six individuals, including operators of illegal private servers and sellers of server programs for the game 'Lineage' serviced by NCSoft, have been arrested by the police.
The Game Rating and Administration Committee announced on the 24th that, in cooperation with the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency, they arrested a total of six people?three private server operators, two server program sellers, and one IDC server provider?on charges of violating the Game Industry Promotion Act after a year-long investigation.
They are suspected of modifying the Lineage game program to operate nine private servers.
It was confirmed that their criminal proceeds amounted to a total of 1.91 billion KRW.
Among the nine private servers, the longest-operating server was maintained for about four years starting from 2015.
While most suspects arrested in relation to private servers in the past were server operators, the inclusion of server program sellers and IDC server providers in this investigation holds special significance, according to the Game Rating and Administration Committee.
Server program sellers have been pointed out as a fundamental problem of illegal private servers by reverse-engineering official game server programs to create and distribute new server programs.
Lee Jae-hong, Chairman of the Game Rating and Administration Committee, stated, "Based on this case, we plan to conduct thorough follow-up management not only on private server operators but also on server program sellers," adding, "We will make further efforts to eradicate illegal game content, including private servers, for a healthy gaming environment."
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