Culture ministry defends copyright probe rate, citing settlements

The culture ministry said Friday that its copyright special judicial police force's low overall prosecution rate reflects the nature of copyright investigations rather than weak investigative capacity.

In a statement responding to a Maeil Business Newspaper article published Friday, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said 164 of the 189 copyright cases it sent to prosecutors in 2025 were complaint-based, while 25 were opened on the unit's own initiative. Because most copyright infringement cases require a complaint from the rights holder or can be withdrawn if the parties reach a settlement, many end in a "no right to prosecute" disposition when a complaint is dropped, the ministry said. For the 25 cases the unit opened on its own, the prosecution rate was 72 percent, with 18 referred for indictment. The unit pursues large-scale, for-profit and repeat infringement, including mass torrent sharing, bulk uploads to webhard storage services and the operation of illegal distribution sites, it said.

The article had reported that prosecution rates vary widely across central government special judicial police units, with the culture ministry's copyright unit at 16 percent, the lowest, and described its investigative performance and expertise as lacking.

"The culture ministry will continue to prioritize the protection of copyright holders' rights and remedies for damages, and will strengthen criminal punishment by strictly investigating malicious and organized copyright infringement crimes such as the operation of illegal sites for copyrighted works," the ministry said. "We will also do our utmost to ensure legitimate rights are remedied by encouraging amicable settlement and mediation in copyright disputes involving ordinary people."

The ministry cited its pursuit of the operator of Nunu TV, an illegal distribution site that it tracked down and handed over to prosecutors under detention, as evidence of the unit's investigative capacity. The industry estimated the damages from the site at about 5 trillion won ($3.68 billion).

The ministry also argued that comparing raw prosecution rates across special judicial police units is inappropriate, since crimes overseen by other units, such as those threatening inmate safety, physical harm or facility security, rarely involve settlements or the withdrawal of complaints.