South Korea’s “Three-Strikes” Law Takes Effect

[p2p rules]

Tough new anti-P2P efforts include six-month suspension of Internet connections for those accused of copyright infringement.

Back in March Korea’s National Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting & Communications (CCSTB&C) passed a bill to amend the country’s copyright laws so as to include a so called “three strikes,” or “graduated response,” system for combating illegal file-sharing.

Today those amendments take effect, making South Korea the first country to institute a system that includes terminating the Internet connections of people accused of copyright infringement.

Under the revised law people accused of copyright infringement can have their Internet connections suspended for up to six months.

However, the govt says it’s mainly targeting those engaged in large-scale illegal uploading or distribution of copyrighted material with the intent of making profits.

How long this last remains to be seen. I’m sure copyright holders won’t refrain from targeting noncommercial file-sharers under the new law, especially being that teens charged with illegal file-sharing has skyrocketed from 611 in 2006 to 23,470 last year.

Up until this past February South Korean police actually worked to help young file-sharers avoid hefty settlement fines by recommending summary trials to address charges of copyright infringement. Police wanted to use summary trials because it means fines of less than 200,000 won ($146 USD). They feared kids would grow desperate and resort to theft or other crime to come up with the large amount of settlement money demanded by copyright holders.

Zeropaid

[Forested665]

1. Currently, under Korea's copyright law, there are broad classroom exemptions for educational use of material, without compensation to rightsholders. (Chapter 2, Section 4, Subsection 2, Article 25) Look for universities and other public schools to become hotbeds of exemption challenges.
2. PC Bangs (internet cafes) might try to put each other out of business using the new laws. This could result in some cafes using advanced black-box anonymizing services to protect themselves and their customers (not necessarily a bad thing).
3. Korean "netizens" might otherwise protest the new system by seeding government BBS and official websites with infringing links and material, and then use the reporting process to overwhelm the system.
4. This proposed law will push internet services into greater black-market criminal activity. Pirated software can be found everywhere, including software commonly-used by government employees. 99% of Korean software is Windows-based. Korea uses active-X controls for practically everything, meaning the entire country is already prone to security problems.
5. Additionally, the use of the internet for organizing civil protest in Korea has been highly effective: the recent Mad-cow Disease protests (while factually incorrect) reached hysterical proportions, delaying implementation of the US-Korea Free-Trade Agreement. Korea still has national security laws against criticizing the government. Online K-blogger Minerva was arrested because he brought to light the Korean government's economic manipulations. With an unstable currency and an undercurrent of restlessness among its populace, the government has been greatly embarrassed. Look for this law to be the perfect tool for Korea to once-again shoot itself in the foot.

oddly enough the korean movie industry wants to launch and online movie download site.


but i havent seen anything from a trustworthy site about the three strikes law.