Continuing International Investigations with Overseas Agencies
"Expanding the Investigative System by Utilizing the Network of Cooperation across 196 Countries"
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 15th that it will continue the 'Interpol Stop Online Piracy (Interpol-Stop Online Piracy·I-SOP)' initiative until 2029.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in October 2003, collaborated internationally with the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, Interpol, and the Indonesian Intellectual Property Office to conduct a joint investigation, resulting in the arrest of three individuals involved in illegal IPTV services in Indonesia.
This is an international cooperation project involving the National Police Agency and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). It selects copyright crime investigators to block the distribution of illegal online pirated content that harms creators worldwide and the digital content market.
Since 2021, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has been conducting the I-SOP project. Over the past four years, it has carried out international joint investigations with numerous overseas investigative agencies including Interpol, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security (MPS), and the Indonesian Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI). It has achieved results by apprehending copyright infringement offenders involved with major illegal online distribution sites such as 'NunooTV', overseas illegal IPTV, the movie and video piracy site 'EvoGroup', and the web novel and webtoon piracy site 'Ajitoon'.
Despite continuous investigations, the number of overseas illegal sites beyond the reach of domestic jurisdiction continues to increase. To eradicate this, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism signed an extended memorandum of understanding with the National Police Agency and Interpol on this day. Over the next five years, it will promote crackdowns on major overseas investigative agencies and illegal online piracy distribution sites, expand international cooperation among overseas investigative agencies, and carry out domestic and international awareness-raising activities for copyright protection.
Yoon In-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is posing for a commemorative photo after signing the second project memorandum of understanding for online copyright infringement response (I-SOP) between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the National Police Agency, and Interpol at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul on the 15th in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
An official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, "To strengthen K-content copyright protection activities, we have assigned two K-content protection specialists to the dedicated online copyright infringement response team within Interpol," adding, "We plan to expand the international cooperative investigation system by utilizing Interpol’s international crime information analysis and investigation techniques, as well as its network of cooperation across 196 countries."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
