[A2k] Korea, Three Strikes Out Provision Passed in the Standing Committee with Some Changes

[Ji-Sung Kim]

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On March 3, 2009, the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Sports,
Tourism, Broadcasting & Communications (CCSTB&C) passed  a bill to revise
the Copyright Law. The bill includes the so called, "three strikes out" or
"graduated response" provision. The basic structure of the three strikes
out  provision is the same as that of the bill proposed by the Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) in July, 2008


 The provision gives authority to order ISP to send warning letters to the
users, delete or stop transmission of illegal reproductions, suspend or
terminate the accounts of the users, or close the bulletine boards to the
Ministry. It also gives power to order information and telecommunication
service providers to block connections to their information and
elecommunication network of such ISPs. You can see the unofficial
translation of the MCST bill at
http://ipleft.or.kr/bbs/view.php?board=ipleft_5&id=488&page=1&category1=3


<http://ipleft.or.kr/bbs/view.php?board=ipleft_5&id=488&page=1&category1=3>

The Ministry did not introduce its bill to the National Assembly by itself.
Instead, Rep. Kang Seung-Kyu , a member of the National Assembly and a
member of the government party, introduced a bill based on MCST's bill with
some changes on November 27,2008.. Some of the measures such as termination
of the accounts and close of the bulletin boards were removed, and the
suspension period was limited at maximum within a year.


 CCSTB&C passed Rep. Kang's bill on March 3, 2009. During the deliberation
in the Committee, the bill was modified. The passed bill limits the
suspension period of the user accounts and the bulletin boards to 6 months
at most, and the blocking the ISPs' connections to the Internet was totally
removed. Originally, the bill was expected to be passed in the general
meeting of the National Assembly on the same day when the bill passed in the
Standing Committee, March 3, 2009. However, The general meeting was a rough
ride and the bill did not passe because the general meeting passed midnight
before the bill was brought up for vote.


The modified bill will be up for vote in April, and it is most likely that
the bill pass in the National Assembly and come into force in April.