July 15, 2011
It was reported that last month Apple’s South Korean office paid $945 of compensation to a South Korean iPhone user for the breaching of privacy by the controversial iPhone user location tracking. Here is the detail from Reuters.
By the way, some news providers reported that this was the ruling from a Korean district court. I, as a Korean lawyer, think that statement is half right and half wrong. Basically it is true that the court issued a ruling which ordered the Apple Korea to pay $945 to the user. But this was not the formal trial case, but a Request for a Payment Order case. Payment order is much convenient & simplified legal procedures for claimant to get a judgment from the court compared to a formal lawsuit. Once a request filed, the Korean court does not question the debtor (in this case, the Apple Korea) and issue a Payment Order within 2 or 4 weeks (in certain courts, within a few days). This payment order, a sort of ruling, asks the opposing party to choose whether to admit the claim as written on the request or to make an objection. If no objection has been raised from the opposing party within 2 weeks, then Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by chungwi
August 18, 2010
Q) Most of my friends say if you’ve got separated for many years, it is easy to apply for a divorce. Is that true?
A) Basically being separated for many years is, by itself, not an justifiable cause for a judicial divorce under Korea divorce law. The key issue will be why both of you have been separated. If it is because of your husband’s violence and/or maltreatment, you’re surely entitled to request a divorce decree to a Korean Family court, even if you’re separated for only 1 day. To the contrary, if you’ve maliciously Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by chungwi
August 15, 2010
Q) I, as a foreign actress living in Korea, recently appeared in a Korean movie that was very successful. I had about 10 lines – 10 minutes of screen time. Now I see that the film company has put my picture on the back of the DVD case in which the movie has just been released. They Never asked for my permission and Never paid me any money for this. Do you believe that I have a case against the film company? Thank You.
A) I understand a certain portion of movie screen shot is printed on the back side of the DVD case. In this case, the producer, not an actor, has the right to the screen shot. So the producer does Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by chungwi
June 9, 2009
The legal concept of a right of publicity is relatively a new one in the Korean legal system. About 25 years ago, affected by the U.S. entertainment law, the Korean legal society began to theorize the right of publicity, and finally the lower courts of Korea approved the right of publicity right as an exclusive property right independent from the traditional right of privacy, although there is no ruling from the Supreme Court and no express provisions therefore are yet legally established.
According to the lower court rulings, the right of publicity is defined as a property right to use the name, portrait or any other identity of a person for commercial purpose and to limit their use. The court have ruled that the right of publicity Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by chungwi
March 19, 2009
Recently there can be seen so many lawsuits are being filed against domestic banks with regard to the bank’s irresponsible fund sale. The Korean fund buyers are alleging the losses in the funds which are still on-going were caused by the fund-sellers’ not informing sufficient information on the risk and possibilities of losses when they put the money to the funds.
As a matter of law, Korean court has ruled that the banks are obliged to inform the customer of the structure of the investment such as fund or option transaction and the risk of possible losses sufficiently when they solicit the customers for investments. If they neglect that obligation, it constitutes a breach of contract and Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by chungwi
December 29, 2008
Last December 23, the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office prosecuted NHN corporation, the operator of Naver (the largest Internet portal in Korea) and Daum Communications Co., the operatot of Daum for copyright infringement.
The prosecutors said two Internet portals have been aiding copyright infringement of their users by ignoring copyright holders(The Korea Music Copyright Association and the Korea Association of Phonogram Producers) request for removing illegal music files on their sites and taking no actions. The prosecutors found 10 millions of uploaded music files Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by chungwi
It was reported that last month Apple’s South Korean office paid $945 of compensation to a South Korean iPhone user for the breaching of privacy by the controversial iPhone user location tracking. Here is the detail from Reuters.
A few days ago, Seoul Central Court ruled in favor of Starbucks Korea in a copyright lawsuit filed by the Korea Music Copyright Association alleging the Starbucks Korea should pay royalties in playing copyrighted music in its outlets. I wrote some posts regarding this issue 
