KOREA: New Internet copyright bill under fire

Bill purposes Internet companies to supervise file transactions and enforce transfer termination of copyrighted materials

The Korea Times
Wednesday, December 7, 2005

By Cho Jin-seo

A copyright bill to strictly control Internet file transfer is facing fierce protests from Internet users and online service providers.

Proposed by Uri party lawmaker Woo Sang-ho, the bill forces Internet companies to supervise file transactions between their users, and to delete or stop them when the contents are copyrighted materials such as music or video files. The bill also says that the companies would be punished for up to 50 million won in penalty, if they don’t follow the government’s instruction.

After the reports on the bill came out, the homepage of ruling Uri party lawmaker Woo Sang-ho was shut down on Wednesday as Internet users swarmed to the bulletin board to post complaints and even curses. Major portal sites such as Naver were covered with thousands of protests from users, too.

The Korea Internet Corporations Association also said Wednesday that it is opposing Woo’s bill, because it will severely damage both the Internet industry and online contents market of South Korea.

"It is a naïve idea that would kill the emerging Internet industry," said the association in a statement. "even if there can be a short-term effects in protecting digital rights. But in the long term it will not benefit the contents’ owners, let alone the Internet users and service providers."

Despite unfavorable reactions from the public, Woo’s staff said that they are pushing for the bill and expect the National Assembly to approve it within this month. They also said that there was some misinterpretation of the reports bringing negative reaction from the public.

"Instant messaging services such as MSN Messenger, Web mail and portal services will not be subject to the new law. Only peer-to-peer service and Web hard service will be forced to take actions on the illegal file transactions," said Woo’s aide Park Seung-nak.

Date Posted: 12/7/2005