Investor Presentaiton

356 South Korea In July 2008, Minister of Justice Kim Kyung-hwan introduced the crime of "cyber defamation," which punishes those who insult others through the Internet with up to two years imprisonment or a KRW 10 million (USD 8,800) fine. 48 Under this rubric, criminal law applies to defamation and threats, while penalties for cyber defamation and "cyber stalking" will be pursued under information and communication laws. Public figures whose personal information is widely shared on the Internet are often the primary victims of online defamation, as in the cases of Tablo 50 and Choi Jin-sil. 51 Some have called for stronger defamation laws as a result of such incidents. 52 49 Government prosecutors also pursued blogger Park Dae-sung on charges of "spread- ing false data in public with harmful intent" following his popular writings on eco- nomic matters during the 2008 economic crisis. 53 Using the pen name Minerva, Park had criticized government economic policy and gained notoriety for accurately pre- dicting the fall of Lehman Brothers and the crash of the won. 54 Park was acquitted in 2009 and saw a subsequent appeal dropped following a December 2010 Constitutional Court ruling that struck down the law prohibiting the spread of "misleading informa- tion with the intention of damaging the public interest."55 The court found that the definition of "public interest" was vague and that the law violated freedom of speech, although the government may still charge individuals with spreading misinformation under the NSL. 56 On April 1, 2009, the National Assembly adopted a "three-strikes" approach to copy- right infringement, particularly file sharing and downloading movie content. 57 In an amendment to Article 133 of the Copyright Law dealing with the "collection, abandon- ment, and deletion of illegal reproductions," the Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism would be authorized to shut down message boards that refuse to comply with more than three warnings to remove copyrighted content, 58 while users who upload such content may also have their accounts canceled. 59 These punitive measures could be taken regardless of whether a takedown request by a copyright holder has been issued. 60 Social media sites whose "main purpose is to enable different people to interactively transmit works, etc. among themselves" are treated as "special types of online service providers" under Article 104 of the Copyright Law.61 Under Article 104, providers are obliged to take "necessary measures" to intercept the illegal interactive transmission of copyrighted works upon the request of rights holders. Article 142(1) lays out fines to a maximum of KRW 30 million (USD 26,000) for these special providers who fail to take necessary measures, while other providers who "seriously damage" copyright enforcement as a result of their failure to take down reproductions or "interactive transmissions" are also subject to fines of up to KRW 10 million (USD 8,800).62 Under the amended legislation, providers who have been fined under Article 142(1) twice and have failed to take necessary measures can be blocked upon the issuance of a third fine. 63

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