Decriminalization Efforts of the Korean Government and Courts against Copyright Infringements

초록

The Improvement and development of culture is the purpose of copyright law. That purpose can be attained by the balance between protecting authors' rights and fair use of the work. Recently that balance became unstable by excessively lengthened protection term and increased penalties against infringer. To deal with immoderate criminal penaties, Korean government devised two measures, one is "Taking- Lectures -Conditioned Suspension of Prosecution", the other is "Dismissal of Complaint". these two measures fuction in reducing criminal prosecutions against petit criminal infringers. Recently, Seoul Southern District Court acquitted one of joint-authors, who licensed the joint work withour the knowledge of the other jint quthor, on teh ground that remuneation scheme is already stipulated in Copyrkght Act. In one of the copyright criminal infringement cases, Seoul Western District Court acqitted a defendant focusing on freedom of expression. These attitudes of teh government and the courts, I believe, show a new path to restructuring teh balance copyright holders and users.