South Korea Implements New Copyright Law; ISPs Ban P2P Ads; File Sharers Get Summary Trials
from the ch-ch-ch-changes dept
Looks like a bunch of things are happening in South Korea concerning copyright law there, as I keep seeing new (seemingly unrelated) stories pop up having to do with changes in South Korea. We'd already discussed how South Korea had agreed to a three strikes plan a little while, and how other oddities in the new copyright law were leading Google to forbid uploading any music to blogs for fear of running afoul of an incredibly, broadly-worded law.It appears that Google's not the only one. Basically any kind of copyright infringement can get you a "strike" -- meaning all kinds of the typical "unintentional infringement" that people do every day that are really harmless can now get you kicked offline. So, all sorts of social networking sites are basically warning their users not to do anything potentially infringing. No homemade videos with music in the background. No mentioning song lyrics. On top of this, South Korean search engines have agreed to stop accepting ads for any sort of P2P file sharing service -- even if it has perfectly legitimate uses.
About the only slightly reasonable thing we've heard is that South Korea is changing the rules for handling lawsuits against those accused of file sharing, basically shifting it from a full trial to something more akin to a small claims court, with the idea being that if someone is found guilty to give them a small fine, rather than the ridiculous numbers the industry usually requests. There was one interesting quote in explaining the reasoning why:
The police say targeting youngsters is unfair because the parents are usually unaware of the illegal activity, and then desperate to come up with the money, the kids resort to theft or other crime to come up with the settlement money demanded by copyright holders.Nice work, recording industry: apparently you've been driving kids to real crime in your effort to stop file sharing. That said, now that the industry has a massively broad three strikes tool to use, it probably doesn't even need to take as many kids to court. It can just kick them offline.
The crazy thing about this, too, is that the music industry in South Korea has actually been doing a really good job adjusting to the changing market. A huge percentage of folks in South Korea have broadband connections (by which we mean real broadband connections, not what they call broadband in the US), and smart entrepreneurs like JY Park have adapted by changing the business model, recognizing that selling music directly no longer makes sense, but there are plenty of other business models that do. And by embracing that, he's been able to create some massive stars, and bring in a ton of money. So why do we need this drastic change in the law?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, south korea
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
"Basically any kind of copyright infringement can get you a "strike" -- meaning all kinds of the typical "unintentional infringement" that people do every day that are really harmless can now get you kicked offline"
Using Torrent Freak as a "source" is and entirely bad idea on a story like this, because their scare factor on reporting is so high. This is anti-torrent, do you expect them to give a truly honest rendering of the facts?
Sort of like asking a Republican about Obama - you aren't going to get a straight answer.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
OK, I'll bite. What source do you recommend for this story? Or would you just prefer that it not be mentioned at all?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Torrent Freak is an involved party, so you have to assume their take is going to be strident and probably a massive over reaction.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Another source
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
If they are such a bad source, then cite some others for us, please. Your blanket comments are otherwise useless.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Another source
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/07/113_48995.html
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Doesn't sound like it
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Another source
"When the Wonder Girls came out with 'Nobody,' netizens uploaded video clips of their versions of the song. The Wonder Girls themselves loved the clips that greatly helped the song gain wider popularity. From now on that will be illegal.
"It's illegal because any second-hand creations will have to have permission from the original source," complained one netizen.
Overreaction ? - I dont think so. The artists liked clips that helped their popularity ... but opps ... now look what has happened. So I guess that copyright has nothing to do with the interests of the artist. How does this promote the arts ?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Another source
Nobody thinks past the ends of their noses!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
well....the MPAA/RIAA are thieves to begin with...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Another source
If you think that setting up your own website or "pushing" has anywhere near the same impact as having your material shared around by large numbers of fans, then you've got a serious perspective problem and a general lack of understand of the scale and dynamics of the situation. That's very short-sighted thinking.
Nobody thinks past the ends of their noses!
Indeed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Another source
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
Heh, that's what I suspected. You don't have any better source or anything to dispute it. You just want people to stop talking about it. Now why would you want that? My guess is that you're anything but a disinterested party: Probably someone associated with those behind pushing this kind of legislation in the first place who doesn't want the public aware of what they're up to. Like cockroaches, you industry tools hate it when the light is turned on.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Another source
I don't think prosecuting your fans is exactly the kind of "connecting" Mike had in mind.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Just to funny ......
Anyone want to speculate on what the catalytic event will be? Or When?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
substitution
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Korea art
Korea is not known to be very creative. Everything socks.Everything is copyed from somewhere. They are empty headed.
Now guy's, do like everybody else, CREATE on you OWN!!!!!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]