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(English Version) (1) This decision affirmed the decision of appellate court (2003Na21140) which held an intermediary – “Soribada” - liable for aiding copyright infringement for the first time. In Korea, aiding and abetting have different meanings in civil liability and criminal liability. Article 760 of the Civil Act on joint tort treats aider and abettor the same. On the contrary, punishment for aiding a crime and punishment for abetting a crime are different: the latter is punished the same with the principal (Article 31(1) of the Criminal Act), while the former gets its punishment reduced (Article 32 of the Criminal Act). (2) The Court stated that acts assisting infringement of the right to reproduce refers to all direct and indirect acts that facilitate the violation of the right held by other parties, and it is...

(1) Article 18 establishes the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) consisting of nine members, in addition to the Korea Communications Commission KCC. (2) Under Article 21 subparagraph 3 and 4, KCSC shall deliberate on matters falling under Article 44-7 of ICNA (defamation, etc., see below), and also deliberate and issue correction requests on information prescribed by the Presidential Decree “as necessary for nurturing sound communications ethics.” The “sound communications ethics” language in Article 21 subparagraph 4 was challenged in the Constitutional Court for its vagueness, but the Court held it constitutional (24-1(A) KCCR 25, 2011Hun-Ga13, February 24, 2013), stating that its scope can be narrowed to the information to be restricted under Articles 44-2 and 44-7 of ICNA . According to Article 8 of...

(1) This case is significant in that the Supreme Court found p2p file sharing software “Soribada” – Korean Napster - liable for copyright infringement by aiding its subscribers’ crime. (2) Following its reasoning in 2005Da11626 (see below), the Supreme Court did not differentiate civil liability and criminal liability. (3) The Supreme Court held that all direct and indirect acts that facilitate copyright infringement are considered aiding. Moreover, it is sufficent that the aider was reckless and it is not required that the aider was specifically conscious of the date or place of infringement, the object copied, or the identity of the principal.

English Version (1) According to Article 27(2)6, a value-added telecommunications service provider of special type (the special types of OSPs such as P2P or web-hard service providers under Article 104 of the Copyright Act) which has been imposed the fine under Article 142(1) of the Copyright Act for more than three times may have its registration cancelled or its business suspended. “Value-added telecommunication service providers” is the term of art that describes all online hosts of applications and contents. (2) The amendment by Act no. 12761 on 15 October 2014, which came into force on April 16, 2015, newly included Article 22-3 which compels those special types OSPs to adopt technical measures prescribed by Presidential Decree to prevent circulation of obscene materials. Those OSPs in violation of Article 22-3...