A Look At How Many People Have Been Kicked Offline In Korea On Accusations (Not Convictions) Of Infringement

from the one-strike dept

With the Hadopi three strikes program in France kicking into full speed, it may be worth jumping halfway around the world to South Korea, which put in place a very strict copyright law last year, that included the ability to kick people offline for accusations (not convictions) of file sharing. It's worth noting, of course, that the reason South Korea put in place such a draconian copyright law was due to serious diplomatic pressure from the US as a part of a supposed "free trade" agreement between the two countries. It's also worth pointing out that the trade agreement between South Korea and the US was, according to many, the basis for the initial draft of ACTA (though, obviously, it's changed a lot since then).

So, now that the law has been in place for over a year, what's been happening in South Korea? Well, it turns out that people are getting kicked offline for accusations of filing sharing -- but worryingly, it appears they're being kicked off with one strike, not three. Glyn Moody points us to a report on the data behind what's going on in South Korea.

Now, it's important to understand the specifics of the law there. There are two ways a user can have his or her account suspended. The first is if the Minister of Culture orders the ISP to suspend the user. However, this can only come after the user has been warned three times (hence: three strikes). However, there's also a separate way, which is that the Copyright Commission can "recommend" that ISPs warn someone, block or delete materials believed to be infringing or suspend accounts. Deleting or suspending doesn't require any prior notice or warnings or anything. Basically, the Commission says "we recommend you censor this content and/or suspend this user" and the ISPs then have a choice to make. Guess what they do? That's right, they obey. Nearly every time. Out of over 65,000 "recommendations" by the Commission, ISPs have only declined to follow the recommendation 40 times -- 20 times in sending out warnings and 20 times in deleting content. It's never declined to follow a recommendation to suspend an account.

Below is the full chart of data concerning the Copyright Committee's recommendations, and what was done about them: Hopefully, it's clear what's going on. Basically, the Commission has sent out a lot of warnings, and blocked/deleted a ton of content. A total of 31 users have had their accounts suspended -- again, with no indication that there was any number of warnings or pre-notice at all. Separately, the blog post in question does note that the other method (the actual three strikes way, involving the Culture Minister) has sent out a much smaller 275 warnings and 41 orders to delete content, but none to suspend accounts.

Filed Under: bans, infringement, south korea, three strikes

Samsung Sues Satirist, Claiming Criminal Defamation, Over Satirical Column Poking Fun At Samsung

from the thin-skinned? dept

Mel alerts us to this story of Korean electronics giant, Samsung, and its decision to sue a freelance writer who penned a satirical Christmas column that poked fun at Samsung's well-known corruption and bribery issues. The writer, Michael Breen, a UK native who's been living in South Korea for a dozen years, wrote an English-language light satire (in English) for the Korea Times, where he joked about what sorts of presents public figures might send to others:

One item read that Samsung had sent to all employees photographs of the son of the firm's chairman with instructions for hanging the photo next to one of his father -- an allusion to North Korea's Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

Breen also wrote that Samsung, "the rock upon which the Korean economy rests, sent traditional year-end cards offering best wishes for 2010 to the country's politicians, prosecutors and journalists along with [$50,000] gift certificates."

As satire goes, it seems pretty tame (and, really, not that funny). But, Samsung went ballistic, suing Breen, the Korea Times and its top editor for both civil and criminal libel charges. Supposedly, after Korea Times ran a "clarification" that was written by Samsung itself, the paper and its editor were dropped from the lawsuit, but the suit against Breen remains. And, since there are criminal charges, not only could he face hefty fines (perhaps $1 million), he might also face jailtime. For writing a satirical Christmas day column. Tough audience.

Apparently, Korean defamation laws aren't just draconian, but they're also downright ridiculous. Truth? Not a defense. Satire? Not a defense. Basically, if anything you say harms someone's reputation, you've defamed them. Even if it's true or you're just making a joke. As the LA Times notes, Samsung says it needs to do this to protect its reputation worldwide:

Since 80% of its revenues are from overseas, the firm is sensitive to any "minor accident or mistake" that could adversely affect its international reputation, the suit said.

Uh, perhaps there's just a cultural mistranslation, but the stories about Samsung's corruption and bribery scandals are pretty widely known. Nothing in that column was going to change that. And, I would argue that, outside of South Korea, filing this ridiculous, petty and vindictive lawsuit over a joke is much more likely to harm Samsung's reputation than the original column (which was probably barely read outside of South Korea). And, doesn't something seem completely wrong when Samsung seems more concerned that its reputation will be harmed more by satire about its well-known and well-documented bribery and corruption scandals than the actual bribery and corruption scandals. If the problem is Samsung's "reputation" on the line, then perhaps the company should have thought of that before getting involved in massive bribery and corruption efforts...

The article also notes how this is basically a sign of how dominant Samsung is in South Korea, and how it more or less has power over the newspapers, suggesting that no one is ever willing to criticize them -- and that it's really using this lawsuit as a warning shot. If true, that's a huge shame for South Korea. If a company is bullying people for just making jokes, just imagine what sort of shenanigans it goes through for people who are actually uncovering serious misdeeds at the company.

Filed Under: defamation, michael breen, reputation, satire, south korea
Companies: samsung

Match-Fixing Scandal Hits South Korean Video Games

from the where-there-is-money-to-be-made... dept

Online gaming is massively popular in South Korea, so much so that its popularity among teens -- and their propensity to stay up all night playing them -- is seen as serious social problem. But the country's professional gaming leagues have been hit by a match-fixing scandal in which players and officials have allegedly taken bribes (via the BBC) from gamblers to throw games of StarCraft. The incredible popularity of StarCraft, and other online games, in Korea has created enough interest to fuel illegal gambling sites that bet on the outcome of matches between the country's 12 pro teams. The maker of StarCraft, Blizzard, has been trying to take a cut of the TV revenues generated from the matches, a move that wasn't well received in Korea. It looks like that spat might get precluded by the crumbling of the pro league.

Filed Under: gambling, online gaming, south korea, starcraft

South Korea To Shut Some Video Games Off For Six Hours Every Night

from the go-to-sleep dept

For quite some time, authorities in South Korea have contended that a lot of kids there are addicted to the internet. One of the more misguided steps take to try and "cure" these kids was to put them in a boot camp where they couldn't use computers, but apparently that effort failed. So, now, the government is mandating a six-hour nightly curfew (via Gizmodo) for 19 online role-playing games that account for 79 percent of the Korean online game market. Apparently the curfew will help "eradicate video game addiction", and will apply only to underage users. However, it's not clear how the government will ensure users are accurately representing their age. It'll be great that some kids will be prompted to get their sleep, but once again, it seems like the curfew will just treat a symptom, not the underlying problem that leads people to get unhealthily immersed in online games.

Filed Under: internet addiction, south korea, video games

Japan Consumer Electronics Domination Usurped By South Korea... So Out Come The Patent Fights

from the if-you-can't-innovate,-litigate dept

If you look at the history of innovative societies and patents, you notice a clear pattern that after a burst of innovation, the firms that innovated begin to rely on patents to stop competition from outsiders who innovate. In other words, contrary to what patents are supposed to be for, they are often used to slow down the pace of future innovation, rather than advance it. Take, for example, the situation in Japan. Back in the '70s and '80s, of course, many American consumer electronics firms lost their edge to Japan -- with many often accusing the Japanese players of "stealing" their technology. But what happens now, decades in the future, when South Korea has usurped Japan's throne as the leading consumer electronics maker? Well, apparently it means that Japanese firms are focusing on patent battles with the South Koreans, rather than working on ways to innovate and offer better products for the market. Many believe that the Japanese consumer electronics firms need to seriously restructure and refocus, but at the same time the indications are that those firms prefer to concentrate on patent battles rather than taking those big and necessary steps. Once again, when companies can't innovate to compete, they litigate.

Filed Under: competition, consumer electronics, japan, patents, south korea

W Korea Uses Demi Moore Photo... With A Different Hip -- So Which One Is Edited?

from the uh-oh dept

So you may recall that last week, the story spread about how Demi Moore's lawyers flipped out and sent ridiculous (laughably so) legal threats to a few blogs that were discussing whether or not Moore's photo on the cover of W magazine had been digitally retouched and, if so, how poor a job the retouching was. Most specifically, there was the point that her hip looked out of place. None of the conversation (which had mostly died out a month before Ms. Moore's lawyers got involved) suggested anything even remotely negative about Ms. Moore herself -- but about the potentially poor editing job on the photo itself.

Of course, once the story was pushed back into the news by Moore's lawyers, a second look at the evidence suggested quite clearly that the image had, in fact, been retouched (not that there's anything wrong with that). And, now, the story gets even more bizarre. Anthony Citrano, one of the bloggers being threatened by Moore's lawyers -- and who has (reasonably) demanded a complete retraction and apology from Moore's lawyers -- got in touch to let us know that the Korea edition of W magazine just happened to have fixed the hip problem on their cover version of the same photo.

As Citrano points out, this leads to one of two possibilities:

1. Citrano was correct all along that the version with the funky hip a bad image edit or...
2. By Moore's own lawyer's explanation, W in Korea had defamed Demi Moore by editing her image (which the lawyers insisted needed no editing)

Either way, at least one of those images was apparently edited, and Citrano's still waiting for that apology and retraction...

Filed Under: cease & desist, defamation, demi moore, photo editing, south korea

Kicking People Off The Internet Not Enough In South Korea, Copyright Lobbyists Demand More

from the it-never-ends dept

If you thought that the entertainment industry would stop at having the ability to force ISPs to kick people they accuse (not convict) of file sharing offline, you might want to pay attention to what's happening in South Korea. South Korea, of course, is home to very high broadband penetration, with exceptionally high speeds. And, not surprisingly, there's a lot of unauthorized file sharing going on there. Of course, if you looked at the Korean cultural world, you'd immediately learn that smart entrepreneurs and entertainers quickly learned to adapt and take advantage of this new world. Entrepreneurs like JY Park recognized the changing marketplace, and adapted -- and the massive success he's had with artists like Rain and Wonder Girls, suggests that perhaps "piracy" wasn't a big deal. All you need is some smart business people who can adapt.

But, of course, we've all seen what sorts of companies are afraid to adapt. The big record labels and the big movie studios couldn't be bothered with the tricky proposition of actually understanding the new marketplace and adjusting their business model. So, they went to the US government and said "something must be done." That "something" turned out to be a new "free trade" (ha ha!) agreement with South Korea, that had little to do with free trade, but plenty to do with pushing ridiculously draconian copyright laws on South Korea (i.e., protectionism for the entertainment industry, not free trade). Of course, these new laws went way beyond what any other country had, and included getting the government to shut down file sharing sites while restricting how user-generated content sites could work as well. Not surprisingly, once the law passed, various sites began restricting how they could be used, even limiting the uploading of any songs, even ones that users themselves had created. And, of course, with all that, a "three strikes" plan to kick people off the internet was also included.

You would think that the industry would be happy and leave well enough alone, right?

Of course not. Reader Dan alerts us to the news that some entertainment industry lobbyists are now demanding that all file sharing services must use content filters. Otherwise, they plan to sue. Just another reminder that for some of these folks, enough will never be enough. They will keep pushing for more and more, just as consumers keep pushing back on having their own rights stripped away.

And, don't think this is limited to South Korea. Many of the "leaked" points about the needlessly secretive ACTA deal are supposedly "based on" the trade agreement that was done with South Korea. So take a look at what's happening there and see if that's how you think copyright law should work in the US.

Filed Under: copyright, filters, liability, lobbying, south korea

South Korean Prosecutors Reject Charges Against Thousands Of Uploaders

from the no-mass-infringement-cases dept

Last month, we noted that a group of mostly Japanese porn publishers tried to bring charges against 10,000 people under South Korea's harsh new copyright laws, claiming that they were guilty of uploading copyrighted material. More recently, those same publishers announced plans to increase the number sued to nearly 65,000. Well, that plan may not be getting very far as Michael Scott alerts us to the news that South Korean prosecutors have rejected the charges against those 10,000 uploaders, instead saying they would just charge 10 "habitual offenders," though those offenders may face jail time.

Filed Under: prosecution, south korea, uploaders

Copyright Used Against Censorship?

from the well,-sorta dept

We've talked a lot about how copyright is used to censor things someone doesn't want, but Michael Scott points us to a story where it's claimed that copyright is being used against censorship. It's over in South Korea, where the authors of a history book are suing their own publisher, after it altered their text based on government demands. The government apparently didn't like sections of the book A Modern and Contemporary History of Korea, and ordered them "revised." The publisher obliged, and the authors are now suing, claiming that it was copyright infringement. Of course, to me, it seems a lot more like this could easily be handled contractually, rather than with copyright law, but if someone wants an example of copyright being used for good, here you go...

Filed Under: censorship, copyright, south korea

Porn Studios Sue 10,000 Korean File Sharers

from the that'll-work dept

Apparently some porn studios haven't realized what a disaster the RIAA's "sue 'em all" strategy has been. A bunch of US- and Japan-based porn studios have supposedly decided to sue 10,000 individuals in South Korea for uploading unauthorized porn. Do they actually think this will help their business models? On top of this, they're asking the police to investigate as well, hoping to get some of the lawsuits to lead to jailtime. I'm sure that South Korean citizens are happy their gov't signed a "free trade" agreement with the US that included a bunch of provisions put there by US entertainment industry lobbyists, resulting in these strict new copyright laws.

Filed Under: copyright, file sharing, lawsuits, porn, south korea