Professor Speaks Out on Illegal Distribution in China: ‘It’s Time for the Government to Step in’

Professor Seo Kyung-duk of Sungshin Women’s University firmly stated that it is time for the government to step in regarding the illegal distribution of South Korean content in China.

On the 9th, Seo said, “It’s no exaggeration to say that Chinese netizens are stealing and watching most of South Korea’s OTT and TV content.”

In fact, on China’s social media platform DouBan, the rating for Netflix’s It’s Okay to Not Be Okay! is 6.6 out of 10, with about 10,000 reviews. Considering that Netflix is not officially available in China, they are presumed to have watched it illegally.

Professor Seo criticized, “They have made it a habit to illegally download and steal-view popular content like The Glory, Squid Game, and Extraordinary Attorney Woo. They freely use the portraits of Korean stars and produce and sell counterfeit goods as their profit structure.”

He continued, “It’s time for our government to step in as it has gone beyond what content producers and platform companies can do. While creating good content is important, we must focus more on building a system that can be protected worldwide.”

▲ The full text of Seo Kyung-duk’s post follows:

Lately, most reports I receive are about the ongoing illegal viewing of Korean content by Chinese people.

It’s no exaggeration to say that they are stealing and watching most of the OTT and TV content, including Netflix’s drama It’s Okay to Not Be Okay! and JTBC’s Strong Girl Nam-soon.

As you can see in the attached picture, the review page for It’s Okay to Not Be Okay! has already been created on the Chinese content review site DouBan, and it currently has about 10,000 reviews.

As you well know, global OTTs like Netflix and Disney Plus are not officially available in China at the moment.

Nevertheless, the illegal distribution of Korean content in China has become a daily occurrence. What’s more shocking is that they don’t feel any shame about it.

They have made it a habit to illegally download and ‘steal-view’ popular content like The Glory, Squid Game, and Extraordinary Attorney Woo.

They freely use the portraits of Korean stars appearing in dramas, produce and sell counterfeit goods for their own profit, and even blatantly rate what they’ve stolen.

In other words, illegal viewing has reached its peak. Our government must step in because it has gone beyond what content producers and platform companies can do.

While it’s important to create good content, from now on, we must pay more attention to building a system that can be protected worldwide.

By. Noh Han Bin