South Korean ‘Pirate Library’ Operator Arrested: Telegram Channel with 330K Members Shut Down
- Oliver Walsh
- Aug 20
- 1 min read
Seoul, August 2025. As reported by Torrent Freak, South Korean authorities have shut down a massive piracy operation masquerading as a charitable educational service.
Launched in July 2023, the “Yubin Archive” operated through Telegram under the mission of “eliminating educational inequality.” It offered students free access to textbooks, video lectures, exam prep materials, and more, built to help those who couldn’t afford expensive educational resources. By early 2024, it had already attracted over 140,000 members, and by August 2025, membership had soared past 330,000.
As its popularity grew, so did alarm bells from publishers and government officials. One publishing executive warned, “It is not an exaggeration to say that most of the 6,000 law school students across the country have pirated files.” torrentfreak.
Meanwhile, representatives from the Korea Copyright Commission acknowledged the challenges of enforcing copyright law in such cases, especially where punitive actions could disproportionately affect vulnerable students. Authorities noted that Yubin Archive included a “minority room” torrentfreak a separate paid channel concealed within the group. This raised serious questions about the operator’s intentions and undercut any moral high ground, prompting sharper scrutiny from officials.
An official statement from the Ministry of Culture and Sports confirmed the operator’s arrest around August 9, with the announcement and channel shutdown following on August 11. The Ministry’s Copyright Crime Science Investigation Team executed simultaneous searches, seized equipment, and effectively dismantled the Telegram operation. Ongoing investigations aim to identify and prosecute accomplices.
