Manga Piracy Site Shut Down for NOTHING?!
45sThe shocking claim that a massive piracy site was taken down in vain immediately hooks viewers, especially anime/manga fans.
▶ Play ClipAI Summary
Kakao Entertainment shut down the world's largest manga piracy site, Bato, only to later abruptly close its own legal English webcomic platform, Tapas, leaving creators like Turtle Me (The Beginning After The End) without warning or a publishing home. The video argues that the piracy takedown was ultimately pointless, as the company simultaneously abandoned its legitimate English-language distribution channel.
Chapters
[00:00]
Bato Shutdown and Kakao's Credit
Korea's Kakao Entertainment took credit for shutting down Bato, the world's largest manga piracy site.
[00:16]
Tapas Shutdown Without Warning
Kakao, which also owns Tapas, shut down the English webcomic site without any warning, even to major creators.
[00:41]
Creator Unawareness
Turtle Me, creator of The Beginning After The End, had no idea the platform was shutting down and learned via social media.
[01:25]
Creators Left Stranded
Tapas creators were left without a legal home to publish their series, with no answers from Kakao.
[01:41]
Piracy Takedown vs. Legal Site Closure
Kakao used licensing rights to take down Bato, but much of the content there wasn't theirs; the takedown is compared to burning the Library of Alexandria.
[02:19]
The Pointlessness of the Takedown
Within less than a year, Kakao shut down its main English translation site, making the Bato takedown pointless and throwing legal series into the wind.
[03:01]
Trust and Reputation Damage
Creators and audiences lose trust in Kakao; the treatment of a major webcomic creator without warning is called shameful.
The video condemns Kakao's actions as contradictory and harmful, arguing that shutting down piracy sites while abandoning legal platforms destroys creator trust and serves no clear purpose.
Mentioned in this Video
💡 Key Takeaways
📊
Tapas Shutdown Without Warning
Highlights the abrupt and unannounced closure of a major legal platform.
00:16
💡
Creators Left Stranded
Shows the real-world impact on creators who lost their publishing home.
01:25
💬
Library of Alexandria Comparison
Provides a powerful metaphor for the scale of the loss.
02:07
⚖️
Trust Destroyed
Emphasizes the long-term reputational damage to Kakao.
03:01Full Transcript
[00:00] So the world's largest manga piracy site was shut down and all for nothing. For absolutely nothing. If you don't know, let me give you the details here. So basically, Korea's Kakao Entertainment took credit for Bato's manga piracy site shutdown.
[00:16] This was something I already made a video on a while back, but the reason why this is relevant is because the same owners, Kakao, owns Tapas. And Tapas is a webcomic site that houses legal webcomics that you can read on there,
[00:29] and they have now officially shut down that English site. One of the world's largest English sites for webcomics that Cocktail Entertainment owns, they shut down without any warning whatsoever.
[00:41] In fact, it was shut down so fast that even the creator of The Beginning After The End, aka, you know, Turtle Me, that even got an anime and is a very popular webcomic,
[00:53] he had literally no idea that the platform was getting shut down. Like this is what he had to say on his official social media. You're probably seeing the news by now that Toppest, the company that currently produces and publishes the beginning after the end comic and Soul Forge novel, is shutting down.
[01:08] For the past eight years, Toppest has been my home. Our home. And then through follow-up comments, it's basically stated that the team, Toppest creators and different people like Turtle Me, you know, the creator of the beginning after the end, literally are waiting for answers following reports of Kakao, you know, turning off Toppest, like shutting it down completely.
[01:25] they were just they had the entire rug pulled out from underneath them and they don't know what to do now for instance all these big creators don't have a home to post their stuff to legally anymore and it's just like do you not see what's going on here like let me paint a picture here okay
[01:41] so basically we have Bato the world's largest manga piracy site that had webcomics on it and obviously Kakao used their licensing and their rights to take it down okay now obviously Kakao entertainment is completely within their right to take down stuff that they license But obviously there is a lot of stuff that was on Bato website that they didn own And obviously stuff that isn licensed and you can legally read it anywhere on the internet Like for instance at all Like there a lot
[02:07] of different manga. And basically, them taking down the entire site and taking credit for it basically was like the burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. That's exactly what Kakao Entertainment did. And obviously, the reason why they did this is to protect their
[02:19] their properties but what do you mean within literally not even a full year you shut down basically your main english translation site tapas and leave creators stranded with no way to publish
[02:32] their series legally anymore what what do you mean that bato died for nothing it died literally for nothing because you you're now throwing your legal license series into the wind that are
[02:45] English translated like this is absolutely batshit insane you see a lot of people talking about ignore this one by the way but like you see a lot of people talking about this different creators you know really upset about it what the spells are people it's just it's it's bad this is a really
[03:01] bad situation because it's like why would anyone want to trust Kakao anymore with like their series if they're just going to do something like this like when you have creators of like the beginning after the end which once again the anime obviously is a failure but it is a big series it is a big
[03:15] webcomic and the fact that he can be done this way without any warning it is legitimately shameful it is an extremely shameful situation and Kakao should be absolutely ashamed of themselves I
[03:28] really hope this gets fixed for them but it's crazy that literally we have massive manga piracy sites shut down thanks to this company and then they do something like this with their legal website. Like, what was the point? Like, what was the point at that point? Like, there isn't,
[03:46] obviously. So, yeah, anyways, I'm gonna leave it at that. I just, I wanted to talk about this, because this was some crazy stuff that came out, and I've been wanting to talk about it, but, yeah, anyways, be safe, stay healthy, Chibi out.
