On April 3, Seoul Central District Court ruled that Pandora TV infringed copyright of Japanese animation by letting its members upload unauthorized animation clips onto Pandora TV’s channel(shared folder).  Pandora TV is a famous Korean internet UCC service provider, something like YouTube.  Its members can upload any files they want, so bunch of copyrighted movies, animations, dramas have been uploaded without permission and anyone who visits its web page can view the copyrighted materials, even though he or she is not logged in.

The court addressed that the Pandora TV has recognized copyright infringements of its members and facilitated and induced it by giving “cyber money or coin” to the members who uploaded much more items.  Also the court pointed that Pandora TV has had an advertising revenues from any views.

Also the court ruled that the individual members are held liable for simply making copyrighted materials available in Pandora TV’s “channel”(it’s like a “shared folder”) although there is no actual transfer or downloading of the work.

Last year Korean Supreme Court have ruled that “SoriBada”, a famous Korean P2P file sharing service provider, violated copyright law by aiding copyright infringement of its users.  Currently Korean Court takes a position that just making copyrighted music available in P2P shared folder does not constitutes a “distribution”, but a “transmission” which results in a copyright infringement under Korean Copyright law.

© 2008 Wonil Chung, a Korean Entrertainment Copyright Lawyer/Chung & Partners, a Korean Entertainment Copyright Law Firm.  All rights reserved. Some copyrights, photos, icons, trademarks, trade dress, or other commercial symbols that appear on this post are the property of the respective owners.