Only KRW 4 million penalty on KRW 20 billion damage… Copyright in ‘soft punishment’
Kim Soo Yeon | newsnews@ | 2017-11-14 10:52:57
[Digital Times, Kim Soo-yeon] Although illegal copying of digital content is taking root, it is pointed out that the punishment regulations are not effective. It is becoming increasingly clear that punitive regulations should be strengthened through revision of related laws.
According to the industry on November 13, it is urgent to protect the rights of creators by raising the level of punishment regulations because the illegal dissemination of digital contents causes damage of 1 trillion won annually and the damage is increasing. It is pointed out that if you infringe copyright once, you need to give a sense that it will be a `fined bomb`.
An industry expert said, "The copyright law on illegal digital content is too weak, and even if the platform companies sued the copyright infringer, it is a problem that the fines are still far below the level of the copyright law," he said. The punishment is not effective because the fines are calculated to be much less than the gains that were illegally taken by the infringement."
If somebody publishes his, her webtoons unauthorized online without permission of the copyright owner, you may be subject to up to 5 years imprisonment or a fine of up to 50 million won in accordance with Article 136 (penalty) of domestic copyright law. According to the Korea Copyright Supervisory Service, the damage caused by copyright infringement in the digital content market has increased 11% to about 1.2 trillion won last year from 1.77 trillion won in 2015. In this case, it is expected that actual damage will be bigger due to the lack of damage in the webtoon field.
In particular, in the case of Webtoon, as the original story is reborn as a drama, the damage of copyright infringement is increasing rapidly. The industry estimates that Naver Webtoon will cost about KRW 10 billion per copy of a work of 500,000 views for illegal copying. Tomix estimates that the artists who posted Webtoons on their platforms due to illegal content have suffered KRW 40 billion in damage.
This is the situation, but punishment is minimal. Naver and Resin Comics filed two and six lawsuits related to illegal dissemination of Webtoons, but they were both fined. Naver`s case is estimated to have suffered 20 billion won in damage to two cases, but it is reported that the fines received by distributors are about 4 million won. Resin comics estimated that at least KRW 1.630 billion of damage was caused by the distribution of illegal contents of "bad boss", but the distributor was fined KRW 3 million.
Meanwhile, under Article 1204 of the Copyright Act of the United States of America, for the first time violating copyright law, such as illegally distributing copyrighted works, a sentence of up to five years or a fine of up to USD 500,000 will be imposed. A fine of not more than JPY 300 million may be imposed on a corporation or a representative of a corporation that infringes copyright according to Article 124 (8) of the Copyright Act of Japan,, such as illegally distributing a copyrighted work.
By Kim Soo Yeon newsnews@
[ copyright ⓒ The Digitaltimes ]
According to the industry on November 13, it is urgent to protect the rights of creators by raising the level of punishment regulations because the illegal dissemination of digital contents causes damage of 1 trillion won annually and the damage is increasing. It is pointed out that if you infringe copyright once, you need to give a sense that it will be a `fined bomb`.
An industry expert said, "The copyright law on illegal digital content is too weak, and even if the platform companies sued the copyright infringer, it is a problem that the fines are still far below the level of the copyright law," he said. The punishment is not effective because the fines are calculated to be much less than the gains that were illegally taken by the infringement."
If somebody publishes his, her webtoons unauthorized online without permission of the copyright owner, you may be subject to up to 5 years imprisonment or a fine of up to 50 million won in accordance with Article 136 (penalty) of domestic copyright law. According to the Korea Copyright Supervisory Service, the damage caused by copyright infringement in the digital content market has increased 11% to about 1.2 trillion won last year from 1.77 trillion won in 2015. In this case, it is expected that actual damage will be bigger due to the lack of damage in the webtoon field.
In particular, in the case of Webtoon, as the original story is reborn as a drama, the damage of copyright infringement is increasing rapidly. The industry estimates that Naver Webtoon will cost about KRW 10 billion per copy of a work of 500,000 views for illegal copying. Tomix estimates that the artists who posted Webtoons on their platforms due to illegal content have suffered KRW 40 billion in damage.
This is the situation, but punishment is minimal. Naver and Resin Comics filed two and six lawsuits related to illegal dissemination of Webtoons, but they were both fined. Naver`s case is estimated to have suffered 20 billion won in damage to two cases, but it is reported that the fines received by distributors are about 4 million won. Resin comics estimated that at least KRW 1.630 billion of damage was caused by the distribution of illegal contents of "bad boss", but the distributor was fined KRW 3 million.
Meanwhile, under Article 1204 of the Copyright Act of the United States of America, for the first time violating copyright law, such as illegally distributing copyrighted works, a sentence of up to five years or a fine of up to USD 500,000 will be imposed. A fine of not more than JPY 300 million may be imposed on a corporation or a representative of a corporation that infringes copyright according to Article 124 (8) of the Copyright Act of Japan,, such as illegally distributing a copyrighted work.
By Kim Soo Yeon newsnews@