TOKYO -- Internet company DeNA's focus on numerical targets for its curated-content sites fed rampant plagiarism and copyright violations, third-party investigators say, pushing the firm to make extensive changes aimed at regaining users' trust.
The Japanese site operator and an independent investigative committee announced the findings at a news conference Monday afternoon. Of all images posted on DeNA's curated-content sites by Nov. 10, 2016, 16%, or 747,643 files, might have infringed on copyrights, according to the panel's report. Sampling of 376,671 articles on 10 sites showed as many as 5.6% of the total also possibly in violation. While not illegal, ethical infractions, such as improper quote attribution and the copying and pasting of text from article to article, were also found to be rampant.
