In correspondence with TorrentFreak, a website dedicated to sharing copyright and privacy news, P.CoK took credit for the shutdown of one of the biggest pirating sites, Bato. P.CoK, also known as Protecting the Content of Kakao Entertainment, is an anti-piracy taskforce to “safeguard the digital rights” of Kakao’s content creators. On January 23rd, 2026, the group confirmed to TorrentFreak that “they have tracked the individual to their country of residence, where legal proceedings are now active.”
“We adopted a strategy that categorizes individuals involved in the operation into multiple tiers and applies tailored countermeasures to each group. Legal proceedings are currently underway in the country of residence of the founder and core developer.
We have identified the majority of individuals who are directly or indirectly involved in the operation—such as sub-developers, moderators, and community administrators—and have sequentially issued Cease and Desist (C&D) letters to them.”
Understandably, the identification of the site’s developer has led affiliated subreddit and Discord moderators to abandon any relation to the site as they could potentially face similar legal repercussions.
A final update from Batoto’s subreddit as shared by TorrentFreak
The task force was originally formed three years ago, and has continuously been “on the lookout for illegal use of Kakao Entertainment’s exclusive content worldwide, moving quickly to report and remove illegal postings of our webtoons and web novels.” Since its inception, Kakao has successfully shutdown similar pirating sites, such as Comick and Reaper Scans. In partnership with several Japanese companies, it was also responsible for the flurry of DMCA takedowns requests that led to the removal of over 7,000 titles on MangaDex.
Source: TorrentFreak
