Kakao Entertainment took responsibility for the shutdown of the popular light novel piracy websites Light Novel Pub (LNP) and Light Novel World (LNW) after having “persistently pushed for the site’s shutdown over the course of about four months,” per its statement posted to X (formerly Twitter). The shutdown was led by Kakao Entertainment’s anti-piracy unit P.CoK (Protecting the Content of Kakao Entertainment). You can read the statements from P.CoK and LNP/LNW below.
P.Cok: “📢 P.CoK identified the operator of Lightnovelpub (lightnovelworld)—a top-3 global web novel piracy site with around 68 million monthly visits—and persistently pushed for the site’s shutdown over the course of about four months.
In the end, the operator posted a statement on the site’s main homepage: ‘We sincerely apologize for any copyright infringement that occurred through our platform. We respect the rights of content creators and have decided to shut down our services.’ The site is now completely shut down!
P.CoK will continue to work to prevent these sites from reappearing and will focus on complete site closures to protect Kakao Entertainment’s valuable webtoons and web novels. 🦚
Goodbye, webnovel piracy site!👋“
Light Novel Pub/Light Novel World: “Farewell, Readers
We are sad to announce that our platform has been terminated. In line with the requests of the copyright holders, we reached an agreement and decided to shut down in case of violations.
We sincerely apologize for any copyright infringement that occurred through our platform. We respect the rights of content creators and have decided to shut down our services.
Thank you for being part of our community and for all the you’ve shown throughout this adventure.
But we are not done, Stay connected…
We are developing a COMMUNITY platform to ensure that the community stays engaged and that s can keep using all comments, reviews and library data.
The community platform will not host any novel data and chapters. It has been set up only to strengthen the interactivity of the community in this industry.
It’s almost ready to be released. Please our Discord server to stay up to date and stay connected with the community.“
A Discord message confirmed to be from LNP/LNW’s operator said all Korean novels were removed from the platform in April, with Kakao Entertainment extending its deadline to the end of May for the entire site’s shutdown. Before that, a mod for the sites’ Discord had shared a message purported to be from its operator, revealing that Kakao had tracked down all his personal information and was sending legal threats to his house.
It’s unclear whether P.CoK’s estimate of 68 million monthly visits was a typo. Similarweb data estimated it at a combined 7.1 million in April 2025. Nevertheless, it marks another P.CoK-instigated shutdown following Reaper Scans in May. Known for its large library of web novels, Reaper Scans was estimated to have amassed 12.8 million visits in April. Webtoon piracy site EnryuManga recently announced its shutdown in May following a Cease & Desist from WEBTOON’s Naver. It amassed an estimated 687k monthly visits in April.
In other recent Korean piracy news, the operator of the web novel and 2-year sentence of the operator of Ajitun, one of Korea’s most notorious web novel and webtoon piracy sites, was upheld at the Daejeon District Court.
Source: P.CoK official X (formerly Twitter)
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