[Editorial] Problems With The New Copyright Law

There is strong opposition to the bill to revise the copyright law, which was approved by the National Assembly last week. Online rights groups, civil rights groups, and internet companies have issued statements critical of the amendment, and internet users are also upset about it.

The changes are problematic in three major areas. To begin with, the culture and tourism minister has the authority to order that material determined to be in violation of the copyright law be deleted without a court order. Secondly, companies that provide file-sharing services will be required to have devices in place that prevent illegal copying. Finally, it has become easier to initiate criminal prosecution without a formal complaint from the individual who owns any copyrighted material that is at issue. There is also criticism that most of the controversial changes were not made after seeing what the country wants and that there was not even ample discussion at the committee level.

The social side effects of the changes are too serious to justify them with the argument that they will foster growth in culture-related industries. Allowing a government ministry to have online contents deleted when a court has not determined that the material infringes on copyright laws makes it too easy for there to be abuses of power and censorship. You can already see that freedom of expression is going to be hurt as a result, particularly for forms of expression that can sometimes be of vague legality, such as parodies. The requirement that online file-sharing services have technical means to prevent illegal copying is the result of entirely theoretical thinking. If companies want to stay legal they will inevitably have to spend a lot of resources and eventually engage in self-censorship. There is already confusion about what services fall within that requirement.

Allowing for criminal prosecution when no complaint has been filed is a very serious matter. On the surface it looks like all that means is that you get prosecuted when you violate the law, but it is not that simple. The principle about copyrights is that you obtain them naturally but exercise your rights only when you have the desire to do so. There needs to be a social consensus if there are going to be any exceptions to that principle. That clause not only gives the "information sharing movement" less room to work with, and it also has the potential to be used as a form of trade pressure by foreign countries. The National Assembly needs to see what the public wants and rewrite the amendment to the copyright law.

The Hankyoreh, 14 December 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]