KOREA: Online community riled by revised copyright law

Government assures public that copyright law is intended for "regulating heavy up loaders" and online boards, but some bloggers worry it will restrict freedom of expression online

The Korea Herald
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

By Bae Hyun-jung

Despite the government's efforts to soothe anxiety over the revised copyright law, the online society is still largely disturbed with the intensified regulations. The revised copyright law, which came into effect last Thursday, raised controversies and rumors in the online community long before taking effect, as it pledged to step up regulations on all forms of online copyright violation.

The revision was a legal move to put an end to the widely spread trend of illegal uploads and downloads on the internet.

However, observers worry that the revised law may excessively restrict freedom of online expression.

According to the revised law, "heavy up loaders" who illicitly upload copyright works of others through online service providers such as P2Ps or webhards are to be banned from using the corresponding online service account for up to six months.

"The revised copyright law aims at regulating heavy up loaders who disturb the distribution system of copyright works and online boards that attribute to the illicit distribution," said an official of the Culture Ministry. "The internet accounts of individuals, online communities in portals and personal blogs are not subjects of this law."

Individual internet users who have no commercial purposes will not be punished for data downloading, uploading UCC or making parody works, he also explained.

"Users will still be allowed to capture movie scenes in order to write a commentary or to indicate the original URL of an online newspaper article," he said.

Despite the ministry's efforts, the online community does not feel at ease.

"During the few days before the revised law came into effect, I spent much time deleting all blog postings that I thought may be in violation of the revised law," said Jung Mi-hee, a 22-year-old blogger. "Some say that I need not bother but I could not help worrying that my online postings, though totally free from any commercial purposes, may get me in trouble."

Some bloggers complain that they feel threatened by the portals' warning messages.

"As I was not entirely convinced by the government's words that personal blogs would not be affected, I made an individual inquiry to Naver," said Kim Min-ae, a 20-year-old blogger in the top domestic portal Naver.

"Naver said that they would regulate all unauthorized uses of copyright works by others, regardless of the copyright law, so I deleted many of my book and product reviews."

Though portals were in fact excluded from the regulation of the revised law, portals nevertheless chose to remain cautious, according to an employee of Naver who asked to remain anonymous.

They, however, are not likely to interfere in movie, book or other product reviews as the copyright owners have no reasons, in such cases, to object to the PR effect caused by such reviews, according to another portal employee.

Amid such ongoing discussions, a ruling party lawmaker was recently criticized for posting a picture that violated the copyright law.

Na Kyung-won, GNP's ranking member for the parliamentary media, broadcasting and communications committee, recently uploaded an image file which source was unidentified.

Netizens condemned her for not setting a proper example in abiding by a law which she has taken the lead to effectuate.

Among the 143 lawmakers who approved of the copyright law revision in April, 90 percent were violating the law in their personal webpages or blogs, according to a research by the Center for Media Responsibility and Human Rights.

Date Posted: 7/29/2009