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
October 5, 2010
There have been increasing conflicts between the free expression and the copyright arising out of a UCC, a user-created content, posted on the internet site. For example, in the United States, there was a legal dispute concerning a woman’s 29-second YouTube video of her toddler dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy”. Copyright holder to the Prince’s song alleged the video infringed the song’s copyright.
Almost the same lawsuit had been filed in South Korea. In Korea, a father uploaded to his blog operated by Naver, the largest internet portal site, a video capturing his 5 year-old daughter singing and dancing to a famous Korean female singer(Dambi Sohn)’s song, titled “Crazy”. But the video was taken down by the portal site operator upon a request from the copyright holder to the song alleging the video is a copyright infringement as it was used the song without permission. Then the father filed both a declaratory lawsuit that uploading the video did not constitute a copyright infringement and a monetary compensation lawsuit for mental damages which he suffered from the take down of the video he’d made.
On February 18, 2010, the Seoul Southern District Court sided with the father. The court ruled that uploading a video at issue did not constitute a copyright infringement because it fell within the scope of “the quotation from works made public” under Article 28 of the Copyright Act, which Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Entertainment Business, Entire Entries, Intellectual Property, IT, Korean Lawyer, Litigation | Tagged: Copyright Lawyer, Korean Copyright Law, Korean Entertainment Law Firm, Korean Entertainment Lawyer, Korean Intellectual Property Lawyer, Korean IP Law Firm, Korean IP Lawyer | Permalink
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 16, 2010
Q) I am on an F2 visa and teaching for 28 months at the same school. The contract between myself and the Owner is basically a few written lines , just mention salary and final teaching date. There is no mentioning of severence payment. According to the Labor Law, am I entitled to severence payment even though it is not mention in a short contract?
A) If and to the extent that you are legally regarded as an employee under Korean labor law, you are entitled to to the severance payment.
The term employee under Korean labor law is someone who provides labor pursuant to his or her employer’s instructions or directions in exchange for wage compensation. The most important factors for classifying someone as an employee are, Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Entire Entries, Korean Lawyer, Labor, Q&A | Tagged: Korean Labor Law, Korean Labor Lawyer, Korean Law, Korean Law Firm, Korean Severance Payment | Permalink
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
October 12, 2009
It is reported that Mr. Matthew Deakin, the president of the HSBC Korea, said on last Wednesday that HSBC Holdings Plc had no plan to acquire a local Korean bank for now. Last year, HSBC walked away from the deal with the Lone Star, a U.S. private equity fund, which provided HSBC the right to buy 51 percent stake of Korea Exchange Bank due to the global financial crisis and continued legal disputes surrounding the 2003 purchase of the bank by Lone Star Funds. (Here is a related previous post)
Things have changed. The Seoul Central District Court in last November ruled the purchase legal, and as the financial markets are now stabilizing. But Mr. Deakin, at the press conference which took place for the purpose of introducing the bank’s new Emerging Markets Index, said “right now, we have no interest in any acquisition of Korean banks”.
Here is a related news article.
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Posted by chungwi
August 10, 2009
We’ve been asked about a criminal charge against an adultery under Korean criminal law quite often. Foreign employees in Korean should be cautious that such an adultery is a crime under Korean law. Here is a real example of such a case where a foreign officer committed an adultery and the company(employer)’s legal concern made it ask some legal consultations to our law firm regarding the adultery law and criminal law process in Korea.
Q) Mr. XX, who is a head director of our company, committed an adultery and was charged by the Korean prosecutor. He has confessed his guilty and the prosecutor demanded one year’s imprisonment for his crime to the court. If the court finalize that Mr. XX is guilty, is that means that Mr. XX will be imprisonment for one year or lesser?
A) Finding guilty does not always mean Mr. XX will be imprisoned. The Court may SUSPEND the imprisonment for certain years even though Mr. XX is guilty. The Korean Criminal Act provides that a married person who commits adultery shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years. However, the Act also provides the execution of the sentence for an adultery can be Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Business in Korea, Corporate, Criminal Case, Entire Entries, Korean Lawyer, Law Firms | Tagged: Korean Adultery Law, Korean Criminal Lawyer, Korean Law Firm, Korean Lawyer | Permalink
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.
