Launched in July 2023, Yubin Archive's popularity stemmed from its mission to "eliminate educational inequality" by providing copies of educational material to less well-off students in South Korea. Operating via Telegram, Yubin Archive had grown to over 330,000 members when its operator was arrested on Tuesday. The Ministry of Culture and Sport says others involved will be tracked down and given lessons in copyright law.
Piracy of movies, TV shows, music, games and similar content, purely for the purpose of recreation, is an internet wide phenomenon that would otherwise find funding from consumers’ disposable income.
Once gainfully employed, piracy of leisure products largely becomes a matter of choice. In the educational context, textbooks can be both expensive and effectively mandatory for those seeking an education, a job, and the luxury of income to spend at some point.
For less well-off students this presents a dilemma; a) no money now and no money later either, b) go into debt and introduce a new set of problems, or c) piracy.
“Eliminating Educational Inequality”
Yubin Archive launched on Telegram in July 2023 and was an instant hit with students. Offering educational materials such as textbooks, workbooks, video lectures, and exam preparation material, its motto was Eliminating Educational Inequality.
Early 2024, Yubin Archive had already amassed over 140,000 members, mostly students and of all ages. Stories of how the unofficial library had saved the day in various ways began to appear in the media. Queues to scan textbooks and have them printed onto paper were dramatically cut. Starting out with a digital copy rather than a loaned physical book yet to be scanned, let alone printed, became a thing of the past.
A report in March 2024 reported that Yubin Archive had become popular with students at law school, proof perhaps that knowledge of the law doesn’t always precede compliance.
Book Publishers and Government React
“It is not an exaggeration to say that most of the 6,000 law school students across the country have pirated files,” commented the CEO of a book publishing company early last year.
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