Crazy Copyright Law Set to Cause Chaos in S.Korea
Written by enigmax on July 23, 2009Netizens of South Korea could find themselves at the mercy of a copyright infringement firestorm today, as a tough new copyright law takes effect. A prominent social networking site is sending warnings to its customers about their behavior, noting that far reaching penalties include 6 month Internet disconnections.
Reports of countries mulling the possibility of 3 strikes for online pirates is nothing new and if those reports are to be believed, it might or might not be implemented in dozens of countries in the future.
There is no such doubt in South Korea. Today, tough new anti-piracy legislation takes effect which targets illicit file-sharers in a particularly aggressive way. The scheme, hatched by the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, gives authorities the power to disconnect pirates for up to 6 months.
However, 3 Strikes for file-sharers is just a small part of the issue.
Although the government insists the rules are targeted at large scale infringers, thanks to a lack of clear boundaries in the legislation – which simply refers to “copyrighted content” – South Korea has extended the 3 Strikes concept to pretty much everyone adding content to the Internet.
According to SKC, the operator of social networking site Cyworld and web portal Nate, any South Korean running a blog or a social networking page will have to be very careful indeed.
In recent days the company has been alerting its users to the new law, notifying them that not only is the sharing of copyright songs, movies and TV shows illegal, but also the use of any copyrighted images or videos. Any of these could earn the infringer a strike.
Any ‘YouTube’-style homemade videos that contain copyrighted music in the background are also banned and will also get you a strike.
And song lyrics. And excerpts from books.
We shall know shortly if the copyright industries behave responsibly with their new found power or if they choose to use it as a weapon of mass disconnection. Either way, South Korea’s enviable broadband position is hardly likely to benefit from the legislation.
Previously: Pirate Bay Founders Sue BREIN for Slander and Abuse
Next: Streaming and BitTorrent Sports Links Site Declared Legal
87 Responses
The world gone crazy and we the people have to revolt!
crazy chinks.. what will they think of next?
ANDDDD back to the masturbating bear game show! Woohoo!
screw strikes
REPERSSION AT ITS FINEST…..
F.U. ,YOU COMMIE BA$TARDS
WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS WORLD
All that bandwidth- and nothing to do with it. What a stupid waste!
An excellent way to kill off the internet’s potential.
I can’t wait to see what happens. Haven’t these idiots heard of USB sticks? What’s going to stop people from swapping music that way? Are they going to outlaw flash memory as well?
They will do the exact same thing in Brazil.
We are doomed!
I thought that this was legal in South Korea?
Christ, and I thought we had it hard here in Europe. The South Koreans want to get the VPNs (or the law) sorted out before it’s too late.
Is South Korea working towards a North-South Anschluss or what?
actually under a communist regime copyright (a capitalist concept) would not b a problem so above comments are particulary stupid.
Never mind South Korea. What is North Korea doing to combat online copyright infringement? ;)
(Is it online? I should check for NK sites.)
More seriously though, the true spirit of communism– that might have received a bad rap due to its ostensible misapplication/misinterpretation– might be more akin to the spirit p2p. I doubt communism is the same as totalitarianism, but some seem to get the two mixed up– including those in government.
@yogi:
I suspect that swapping USB sticks defeats the purpose of online distribution.
Anyway, the above article is yet another reason why I keep pondering the idea of “hardware p2p”, or wireless mesh network(s) clouds + “spectrum reform/hardware” (”community wireless”)
There are groups out there for that too.
that is crazy! i mean, song lyrics?!? background music in a vblog?!?!
pathetic if u ask me!
TBH i would sell my family or whatever and MOVE out of there..
I can even let someone stay with me, and help them become citizens if they have to take that kind of shit ontop of everything else..
Its not worth being a citizen of any government that dont know how to listnen to the people or allow true Democracy, or lack that mutch tolerance..
I might move from Sweden in the future if things keep up as they have over here.
Thats how mutch i value what i have/had, my privacy and what i should be able to do within my personal space that does not cause anyone any kind of harm whatsoever.
Cloning something does not cause harm.. Its the greedy fuckers that dont know how to adapt to it that cause harm!
I will share MY stuff to who the fuck i want.. Even koreans!
And i will download whatever i want for personal use.
Shut down the internet completely if its realy that bad to share and download stuff..
Thats its function, and i will always try to use it as mutch i can for im paying for it!
Games, movies, programs and electronics/computer parts i buy alot of stuff..
Im just not paying a maffia industry to have retards like BREIN/IFPI/RIAA and whatever lobby organisation fucking up laws and countries anymore, all because they dont know how to change and need the world to change for THEM..
From now on its pure piracy, not one cent will i pay that helps with these kinds of actions, and if they want to fuck with me im moving, simple as that..
They made the problem their trying to fix and its causing more harm then real crimes, its our way to communicate for gods sake, that shouldnt be taken away..
What country to move to if it goes so far?
A tolerant country that doesnt give in to demands from the US or its little minions of destruction..
VPN demand will increase, good for business.
Counting down until everything on the South Korean internet will be encrypted, tor-ed or freenet-ed: 20.. 19.. 18.. 17.. 16.. 15.. 14.. 13.. 12.. 11.. 10.. 9.. 8.. 7.. 6.. 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1!
Glad I live in Norway
Pff… That’s a ridiculousness to which copyright leads in it’s fullest form. Complete censorship of types of information that can be shared depending on information owner (as if in real world information can be owned) and people who got permission to access it(copy it in to his brain lol). What’s next? With each copyright thing we buy we will sign a non-disclosure agreement? Like hey I just when to see a new film but can’t tell you about it cuz of copyright NDA agreemtn. Sorry…
We live in time of change of how we exchange with informations. Words are not enough. Not it is photos and videos, documents and diagrams and all in real time. Videos and music are like part of our “speech” today especially in Internet and such those tight censorships that are pushed by strict copyright laws lobbies stand on a way of this “evolution” so I don’t think they will hold… South Korea is a high tech country with high-tech youth that wants to exchange rich multimedia information freely and as fast as possible. All those law imposed limitations and hurdles will make them pissed. How some small minority of people can imposing hurdles on others information exchange??!?! In this case those are imposed on people to judge what stuff falls under copyright and what is not… I am clear I would be unsatisfied by this all and just look for other solutions and in field of digital technologies file sharers are always one step ahead as natural laws are in favor of file shares here(no one truly on information, it just exists)…
Soon writing text will be copyright infrigment too, cause you know, the words are in the dictionary and it’s copyrighted, so it’s an “excerpt” from it, right? Dumb.
#11 Bobe-On (Unportal?)
Wow I was just thinking moth ago about and idea of Mobiles without a mobile operator (self organizing network of mobile phones that have both WiFi access point and adapter and thus are able to make bidirectional connections to each other as equals, no client-server) which seems to fall under “Wireless mesh network” thing. I am actually thinking that it will fit well for SkyPe to go and make a SkyPe mobile phone with such features :D A mobile network without an owner + encrypted channels.
copyright politics of totalitarian capitalism = insanity
Ouch I get pretty good speeds from SK residents I figure they will find some way around it.
Yeah. Disconnect them all. That’ll stop people from sharing files.
Unless of course they transfer files to USB thumbdrives and share files that way. ;)
I’m a South Korean and I hate this. Bring some hackers to disable the South Korean governmental websites; completely disable it.
Wow, that’s some extreme shit…
Not to mention fancams of concerts and TV shows. And any/all Korean music videos, etc.
This means Korean pop culture will DIE internationally.
Sad to me, since I am really into Korean pop culture and got into it by none other than the internet
Who gives a shit!
The law is made in Korea so you know it won’t last long!
in due course they will begin abusing this law. AND in due course people in drives will stop buying into the crap and the law will be forced to be repealed.
YOU do not help culture buy controlling it.
Considering the capability of their net connections, how about Perfect Dark?
brb korea
they have the fastest internet connection in the whole world. now all that is going to waste. 20mbps connection for playing WOW and SC only. LULZ
This is BS. First they be takin my bittorrents.ro now theyz gonna start this BS? Can’t wait to go to Deutschland.
*click*
Thats the lights going out on the net connection in S.Korea.
What a clusterfuck.
Great news maybe now people start using more anonymous, encrypted, decentralized networks LoL
Seriously, retroshare and stealthNet FTW.
why don’t we assassinate every person related to copyright !
that way we’re safe
break out the shotguns someone has to die. this requires a revolt.
“Piracy” will never die. Industry can go eat shit.
hehe… i know of a few s.korean game companies that used pirated tools in their game creation, now who do i complain to about this hehe
that’s just terrible..so if i was a south korean, and i was to quote a few lines of a song in my blog, i can get a strike just like that? pretty fucked up.
Im sure glad that the U.S. doesnt follow the rules. If that where to happen to us there would be massive riots.
You sure this story is about SOUTH Korea?
Sounds like the totalitarianism of North Korea to me
bunch a idiots ,, might as well just shut down the S. Korean hubs ,, garentee nobody infringes that way
It’s easy boycott the products of members belonging to RIAA and MPAA. Don’t buy or even download their shit. RIAA and MPAA outfits have been behind allot of the 3 strikes policy in allot of countries. No money from RIAA/MPAA no more law suits from local Anti-piracy outfits simple as that.
Also running encrypted connections and VPN’s where ever possible will also undermine these stupid and moronic laws.
Are we all decrying North Korea for protecting the interests of copyright holders? Gee, how terrible!
Don’t get me wrong though… Goverment control of the internet seems a little over the top.
oh neosuckle when will you learn the pro copyright stuff will never work.
and thus capitalist censorship was born
41–>Are we all decrying North Korea for protecting the interests of copyright holders?
———–
This sounds REAL thus:
Are we all decrying North Korea for protecting the interests of the PARASITES copyright holders from USA?
The answer is: Yes.
USA, a damn country of evil and greedy people.
It’s always about the music,movie big company only for there own benefits they don’t think about the customers selfish bastards.
Instead banning and other shit law they create they should think of a alternative with both customer and company will benefit ohh wait the big music,movie company only care about they’re selves.
i heard USA gave a lot of money to South Korea to do the new copyright law !
why does USA do such things ???
I say go for it, implement the laws.
And when Koreans start rioting over the bull crap politicians will suddenly realise its not worth their political skins.
48–>”i heard USA gave a lot of money to South Korea to do the new copyright law !
why does USA do such things ???
————-
I don’t know, my friend.
But I will say something to you:
USA is causing a lot of damage in South America (Latin Amrica). USA is indirectly supporting dictators of tendency communist here in South America who have made (and do) a lot of damage. Now, why? I don’t know.
I really wish that the fuck.ing USA goes to the hell!!!!
And after they (USA) don’t understand why the majority of the people on the world hate them.
48–>”i heard USA gave a lot of money to South Korea to do the new copyright law !
why does USA do such things ???
————-
I don’t know, my friend.
But I will say something to you:
USA is causing a lot of damage in South America (Latin Amrica). USA is indirectly supporting dictators of tendency communist here in South America who have made (and do) a lot of damage. Now, why? I don’t know.
I really wish that the fu.cking USA goes to the hell!!!!
And after they (USA) don’t understand why the majority of the people on the world hate them.
@trollstyles
“Are we all decrying North Korea for protecting the interests of copyright holders? Gee, how terrible!”
North Korea?
Aigoo!
You really do have some serious reading comprehension problems, don’t you?
And by the way, “protecting the interests of copyright holders” comes at the expense of everyone else. Including the artists.
http://torrentfreak.com/copyright-group-prosecuted-for-failing-to-pay-artists-090722/
Anyway, the only thing this insane, overbearing copyright law ultimately means is that the next advances in online anonymity will come out of South Korea. That is, if it even manages to survive the initial backlash.
Why can’t they do like the canadians and ask the public what they think about it?
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/canada-we-actually-want-to-hear-from-public-on-copyright.ars
Every canadian interested in this issue should express himself now.
wot? Isn’t downloading new International Sports?
“….. choose to use it as a weapon of mass disconnection …..”
ROFL :)
Nice work Enigmax.
I <3 TF
Substandard quality legislation when it can’t be enforced in practice. Seems it’ll be used more as a bogeyman to scare little children that copying is “bad”.
It’s the end of the world as we know it…
so sad that some big corporations can get this much power with money… they will rule the world some day, just becuase of copyrights…
F**k ‘em, they eat dogs.
lol @ #56, well said
What the f*ck? Since when did South Korea started to take example of it’s northern brother? To me it now starts to look like one and the same country.
So now we know south-korea is no better that north-korea!
I always wonder if singing a song – in ur head – is a copyright infringement?
@56
> F**k ‘em, they eat dogs.
Difference in culture. Why blame a country for its culture?
You know that the whole world was eating dogs right? They just banned it (or made it a Taboo) in western countries after.
Don’t forget the troops that have to suffer without File sharing in SK because of this. Although I haven’t received any ’strikes’ or ‘warnings’.
#11 Bobe-On:
the only problem being that Skype does have an owner. It is a proprietary programm. A free software alternative should be used.
@43: Neostyles, this is about more than piracy and “protecting the interests of copyright holders” as you put it now. This is taking away the rights of millions of people to a free internet. Even you can’t approve of that, just to protect copyrights.
Oh, and it’s South Korea, not North.
Oh my, the government is taking steps to enforce punishment of copyright infringement! Talk about violation of civil liberties!
Unbelievable. Pirate think they can do whatever they want, and when the government shows them that they can’t, they cry that democracy is going down the drain. How that South Korean law is crazy is completely beyond me.
#64
Trolltrolltrolltrolltroll
No, people think they can do whatever society thinks is acceptable, but then the government says they can’t because someone bought a new law. What’s the point in having a democratic regime if we can’t have the laws the majority of us wants?
Intellectual monopoly is hurtful to society and to the global economy. It has no advantage at all besides making a very small group of people richer. Fuck that. Our freedom is much more important than rappers and CEOs driving lamborghinis.
I can go to many subway stations in Korea and buy the latest pirated DVDs, (most the exact same ones you get from torrents, if they are western) from a guy there.
Korea has many laws, but legislation and enforcement are very different concepts.
Nothing much to worry about.
Business as usual.
Move along, nothing to see here.
“We shall know shortly if the copyright industries behave responsibly with their new found power or if they choose to use it as a weapon of mass disconnection.”
This is cool because now all these anonymizing tools will become very popular in sth Korea.
Cool! it will accelerate the evolution of it. Now they will be more of them, more choices, more speeed, more security and better anonymity and privacy.
And people wonder why fucking Terrorism happens.
This oppression and fear of guilt is worse than doctrine spewed by religion.
People do not like to be puppets out of. I dare these bastards to push the public, I will end up messing them in end and then I’ll laugh.
Theres NO way South Korea will let this happen. I’ll let you know why.
Starcraft as everyone should know is insanely popular on TV in SK. The intros, use copyrighted songs. Shut down an entire industry/profession? Don’t think so.
Many people record themselves playing a computer game with FRAPS. They add background music.
SK offers symmetrical 100/100 speeds for between 20-30USD. On a fiber network, might I add. In 2012 this will be 1.2gbps symmetrical.
Nobody will be using their internet for the speed they will be getting. They’ll be using kbps for pages, and some 1-20 mbps for SK sites(Have you seen any of them?).
Even them playing a game does not use the entire 100/100 connection.
Just a little rant why I doubt this is going to be terrible.
@67: Read the story. This isn’t just for downloading coptrighted material, the S. Korean government want to block ALL copyrighted material from being shared. Quote a song on your blog? That’s a strke. Quote an excerpt from your favourite book on your blog? That’s a strike too.
How the hell can you think that this is a good law?
what year are we living in? 1689?
@ 65 Jul 24, 2009 at 15:25 by lverona:
Is Skype for voice over internet protocol? If so, that’s not what I’m suggesting. In any case, I’m pretty confident there are or will be open source alternatives.
If the big companies and commercial “artists” (note the quotes) win over file-sharing, they may also win huge in leveraging the net in creating potentially-huge financial gains at everyone else’s expense.
So I see this file sharing issue with greater concern and as a matter of a few issues. Consider the company that bought, or is trying to buy, Pirate Bay, or how Napster got “Borgged”.
“If we can control online file-sharing, we can also control online distribution and therefore control big financial rewards.”
“Encryption and VPN’s may work both ways. Let them create the technology for us that we then take over.”
Somewhat paranoid perhaps, but I like to think it’s a healthy paranoia.
Younger pirates, etc., may want to consider politics and law themselves, and/or get out of or avoid these kinds of “non-commissioned information” careers and consider tried-and-true brick-and-mortar type kinds… organic family-owned farming (corporate farms– now there’s another nightmare); architecture, etc..
All for one and one for all.
South Anus!
@72 Sendaii: So? If you put a copyrighted song on your home video on your blog/Youtube/etc, I can easily download it, extract the audio, and pluft, I’ve got a pirated file of that song. Not to mention the site host will be profiting from your use of the copyrighted song without giving the proper owners their due share. This is loophole that has been open long enough, and has got to stop. Kudos to SK for keeping ahead on the copyright protection.
Copyright Drive children to a criminal life in South Korea!
Well, if it happens anywhere else, a lot of iSPs well be stuffed. This is how silly the music/movie/game industry thinks, you do this to iSPs men and women who work in the industry loose there jobs, are we not trying to prevent that?
It’s a double bladed edge knife, it cuts both ways, UNLESS you create a game which still sells millions or a movie like Transformers 2 which sells $365 million so far, even people who have a pirated copy of the movie still go out to watch it!
If they done this in OZ with the iSPs, i’ll just get rid of my two iSP connections all together which is work around $960 each per year, and that’s only myself with this connection, what about ALL the other subscribers out there with the same plan? Times that by at least 50,000 across OZ from just one company alone equals 48 million a year, even if it was half of that, it’s still a lot of money to a company to loose if everyone just got rid of them!
Korea has some of the world’s fastest internet. Too bad :P
@77: Yes, you are right about videos. But what if I quote a line from a book on my blog? Who is that hurting? It’s not like I’m putting the whole book wp to be read or downloaded. SK would prevent even this from happening, which is why I’m angry.
Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes in my above post or this one, I’m a bit drunk. Yes, I paied for the beer before anyone starts =P
I’m here in Korea. With my 100Mb fibre connection I think I have enough bandwidth to leave my wireless open…It’s the perfect defence – it wasn’t me, someone was leeching off my network…heeheeehee!
The way to solve this is to have an open internet SSID and an external hard drive, bam plausible deniablity.
“Any ‘YouTube’-style homemade videos that contain copyrighted music in the background are also banned and will also get you a strike.”
Wow!
In South Korea
* you are required to enter your social security number upon registration of most major websites
* most websites only work with Internet Explorer
* a man was arrested for posting his conspiracy theory, criticizing the government.
* and now this!
All those words are taken from my book, 1743 warnings to you!
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