- Copyright Act
- CHAPTER 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
- CHAPTER 2. RIGHTS OF AUTHORS
- CHAPTER 3. NEIGHBORING RIGHTS
- CHAPTER 4. PROTECTION OF DATABASE PRODUCERS
- CHAPTER 5. SPECIAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING CINEMATOGRAPHIC WORKS
- CHAPTER 5-2 SPECIAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING PROGRAMS
- CHAPTER 6 LIMITATIONS ON THE LIABILITY OF ONLINE SERVICE PROVIDERS
- CHAPTER 7. COPYRIGHT MANAGEMENT SERVICES
- CHAPTER 8. KOREA COPYRIGHT COMMISSION
- CHAPTER 9. REMEDIES FOR INFRINGEMENT OF RIGHTS
- CHAPTER 10. SUPPLEMENTARY PROVISIONS
- CHAPTER 11. PENAL PROVISIONS
- ADDENDA
Copyright Act
[Enforced on July 23, 2009] [Law No. 9625, April 22, 2009, amendment]
CHAPTER 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1 (Purpose) The purpose of this Act is to protect the rights of authors and the neighboring rights and to promote fair use of works in order to contribute to the improvement and development of the culture and related industries. <Amended on April 22, 2009>
Article 2 (Definitions) The terms used in this Act shall have the meanings as follows <Amended on April 22, 2009>:
1. “Works” shall mean creative productions in which human ideas or emotions are expressed;
2. “Authors” shall mean the persons who create works;
3. “Public performance” shall mean the presentation of a work, or a performance, a phonogram, or a broadcast to the public by acting, musical playing, singing, narrating, reciting, screening, playback, or other means, and shall include transmission (excluding interactive transmission) that is made in a connected place in one and the same person’s occupation;
4. “Performers” shall mean the persons who express a work by acting, dancing, musical playing, singing, narrating, reciting, or other artistic means, or who express something other than a work by a similar method including the persons who conduct, direct, or supervise performances;
5. “Phonograms” shall mean the media in which the sound (which refers to voice or sound effect herein; the same hereinafter) is fixed (excluding those in which the sound is fixed together with some visual images);
6. “Phonogram producers” shall mean the persons who plan and assume responsibility for the fixation of sound on phonograms;
7. “Public transmission” shall mean transmission of a work, a performance, a phonogram, a broadcast, or a database (hereinafter referred to as “works, etc.”) or making such available to the public by wire or wireless means intended for reception or access by the public;
8. “Broadcasting” shall mean, among public transmission, the transmission of sounds, images, or sounds and images intended for simultaneous reception by the public;
9. “Broadcasting organizations” shall mean the persons engaged in the broadcasting business;
10. “Interactive transmission” shall mean, among public transmission, making works, etc. available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time of their choosing, and shall include the transmissions that occur thereby;
11. “Digital sound transmission” shall mean, among public transmission, the transmission of sounds in the digital method which is commenced upon request of members of the public intended for simultaneous reception by the public, and shall exclude interactive transmissions;
12. “Digital sound transmission organizations” shall mean the persons engaged in the digital sound transmission business;
13. “Cinematographic works” shall mean the creative production in which a series of images (regardless of whether or not accompanied by sound) are collected, and which can be played by mechanical or electronic devices and can be seen, or both seen and heard;
14. “Producers of cinematographic works” shall mean the persons who plan and assume responsibility for the production of cinematographic works;
15. “Works of applied art” shall mean artistic works that may be reproduced in the same shape on articles and whose originality is distinguishable from the articles used, and shall include designs, etc.;
16. “Computer program works” shall mean creative production expressed as a series of statements or instructions used directly or indirectly in an computer or other device (hereinafter referred to as “computer”) which has an information processing ability in order to obtain a certain result;
17. “Compilation” shall mean a collection of works or symbols, letters, sounds, images, or materials in other formats (hereinafter referred to as “subject matters”), including databases;
18. “Compilation works” shall mean compilations of a creative nature in terms of selection, arrangement, or composition of its subject matters;
19. “Database” shall mean a compilation that arranges or composes subject matters systematically so that one can individually access or search such subject matters;
20. “Database producers” shall mean the persons who make a substantial investment in human or material resources for production of a database, or renewal, verification, or supplementation (hereinafter referred to as “renewal, etc.”) of its subject matters;
21. “Joint works” shall mean works created jointly by two or more persons whose respective contributions cannot be separately exploited;
22. “Reproduction” shall mean the fixation or the reproduction in a tangible medium by means of printing, photographing, copying, sound or visual recording, or other means; in the case of architectural works, it shall include construction according to the models or plans for the construction;
23. “Distribution” shall mean the transfer by assignment or rental of the original or reproduction of works, etc. to the public with or without payment by the public;
24. “Publication” shall mean the distribution of copies of works or phonograms to meet public demand;
25. “Making a work public” shall mean to make a work available to the public by means of performance, public transmission, exhibition, or other means and to publish a work;
26. “Copyright trust services” shall mean a line of business in which one holds in trust and continuously manages the rights on behalf of the persons who hold author’s property rights, publication rights, neighboring rights, or rights of database producers, and shall include a general agent concerning exploitation of works, etc.;
27. “Copyright agency or brokerage services” shall mean a line of business in which one acts as an agent or a broker on behalf of the persons who hold author’s property rights, publication rights, neighboring rights, or rights of database producers with regard to the exploitation of the rights;
28. “Technological protection measures” shall mean technological measures applied by a rights holder or a person who is delegated by such rights holder to effectively prevent or restrain the infringement of copyrights and other rights protected under this Act;
29. “Right management information” shall mean information which falls under any of the following Subparagraphs, or numbers or symbols representing such information, each of which is attached to the original or copies of works, etc. or is accompanied by performance, display, or public transmission thereof:
a. Information for identification of works, etc.;
b. Information for identification of authors, owners of author’s property rights, publication rights, exclusive publication rights of programs or neighboring rights, or database producers; and
c. Information related to the terms and conditions of the use of works, etc.;
30. “Online service providers” shall mean the persons who provide others with services that reproduce or interactively transmit works, etc. through information and telecommunications networks (which refer to such information and telecommunications networks as provided in Subparagraph 1, Paragraph (1), Article 2 of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, Etc.; hereinafter the same shall apply.);
31. “Works made by an employee in the course of his duties” shall mean works made by an employee of a legal person, an organization, or other employer (hereinafter referred to as “legal person, etc.”) during the course of his duties, and on the initiative of a legal person, etc.;
32. “The public” shall mean an unspecific multitude of people (including a specific multitude of people);
33. “Verification” shall mean to verify justifiable rights holders for authorization of exploitation of works, etc.; and
34. "Decompilation of program codes" shall mean reproduction or conversion of the codes of computer program works in order to obtain information necessary to achieve the interoperability of an independently-created computer program works with other computer programs.
Article 2-2 (Establishment of Policies for Copyright Protection, Etc.) (1) The Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism may establish and enforce policies regarding each of the following Subparagraphs to achieve the purpose of this Act:
1. Matters about basic policies to create an environment conducive to protection of copyrights and fair use of works;
2. Matters about education and publicity to spread awareness of copyrights; and
3. Matters about policies for the right management information and technological protection measures of works, etc.
(2) The necessary matters for establishment and enforcement of policies pursuant to Paragraph (1) shall be determined by Presidential Decree.
[This Article added on April 22, 2009]
Article 3 (Works by Foreigners) (1) The works by foreigners shall be protected in accordance with the treaties to which the Republic of Korea has acceded or which it has ratified.
(2) The works by foreigners who have their habitual residence in the Republic of Korea (including stateless persons and the foreign legal persons having their principal office in the Republic of Korea) and foreigners’ works which are first published in the Republic of Korea (including works published in the Republic of Korea within thirty days after their publication in a foreign country) shall be protected under this Act.
(3) Even when foreigners' works (excluding foreigners who have their habitual residence in the Republic of Korea and stateless persons) are to be protected in accordance with Paragraphs (1) and (2), if the foreign country concerned does not protect the works of the nationals of the Republic of Korea, their protection in accordance with treaties and this Act may be correspondingly restricted.
CHAPTER 2. RIGHTS OF AUTHORS
SECTION 1. WORKS
Article 4 (Examples of Works, Etc.) (1) The following shall be the examples of works referred to in this Act:
1. Novels, poems, theses, lectures, speeches, plays, and other literary works;
2. Musical works;
3. Theatrical works including dramas, choreographies, pantomimes, and other theatrical works;
4. Paintings, calligraphic works, sculptures, prints, crafts, works of applied art, and other artistic works;
5. Architecture, architectural models, architectural plans, and other architectural works;
6. Photographic works (including other works produced by similar methods);
7. Cinematographic works;
8. Maps, charts, plans, sketches, models, and other diagrammatic works; and
9. Computer program works.
(2) Deleted <April 22, 2009>
Article 5 (Derivative Works) (1) A creation produced by means of translation, arrangement, alteration, dramatization, cinematization, etc. of an original work (hereinafter referred to as “derivative work”) shall be protected as an independent work.
(2) The protection of a derivative work shall not affect the rights of the author of the original work.
Article 6 (Compilation Works) (1) Compilation works shall be protected as independent works.
(2) The protection of a compilation work shall not affect the copyright of the subject matters constituting such compilation work and other rights protected under this Act.
Article 7 (Works Not Protected) No work which falls under any of the following Subparagraphs shall be protected under this Act:
1. Constitution, laws, treaties, decrees, ordinances, and rules;
2. Notices, public notifications, directions, and others similar to them issued by the national or local government;
3. Judgments, decisions, orders, or rulings of courts, as well as rulings and decisions made by the administrative appeal procedures or other similar procedures;
4. Compilations or translations of works as referred to in Subparagraphs 1 to 3 which are produced by the national or local government; and
5. Current news reports which transmit simple facts.
SECTION 2. AUTHORS
Article 8 (Presumption of Authorship, Etc.) (1) Any person who falls under any of the following Subparagraphs shall be presumed to be an author:
1. A person whose real name or well-known pseudonym (which refers to pen-, stage-, or screen-name, pseudonym, abbreviation, etc. herein; hereinafter the same shall apply.) is indicated as the name of the author in the customary manner on the original or copies of a work; and
2. A person whose real name or well-known pseudonym is indicated as the author in the public performance or public transmission of a work.
(2) If the name of the author as prescribed under any of Subparagraphs of Paragraph (1) is not indicated on a work, the person who is indicated as publisher or public performer, or a person who is making the work public shall be presumed to hold the copyright. <Amended on April 22, 2009>
Article 9 (Authorship of a Work Made by an Employee in the Course of His Duties) The authorship of a work which is made by an employee of a legal person, etc. during the course of his duties and is made public under the name of such a legal person, etc. as the author shall be attributed to that legal person, etc., unless otherwise stipulated in a contract, work regulation, etc.: provided that being made public is not a requirement for computer program works (hereinafter referred to as “programs”). <Amended on April 22, 2009>
Article 10 (Copyright) (1) The author shall enjoy the rights prescribed in accordance with Articles 11 to 13 (hereinafter referred to as “author’s moral rights”) and the rights prescribed under Articles 16 to 22 (hereinafter referred to as “author’s property rights”).
(2) The copyright shall take effect on the date a work is created regardless of the fulfillment of any procedure or formality.
SECTION 3. AUTHOR’S MORAL RIGHTS
Article 11 (Right to Make Public) (1) The author shall have the right to decide whether or not to make his work public.
(2) If an author has transferred by assignment his property rights in a work not yet made public pursuant to Article 45, authorized to exploit pursuant to Article 46, established the right of publication pursuant to Article 57, or established exclusive publication rights of programs pursuant to Article 101-6, he shall be presumed to have given the other party his consent to make it public. <Amended on April 22, 2009>
(3) If an author has transferred by assignment the original of his work of art, architectural work, or photographic work (hereinafter referred to as “work of art, etc.”) not yet made public, he shall be presumed to have given the other party his consent to make the original public by exhibition.
(4) If a derivative work or compilation work has been made public with the consent of the author, its original shall be considered also to have been made public.
Article 12 (Right to Indicate the Author’s Name) (1) The author shall have the right to indicate his real name or pseudonym on the original, copies, or publication media of his work.
(2) In the absence of any intention of the author to the contrary, the person using his work shall indicate the name of the author in the same manner as that already adopted by the author, unless such indication is deemed impossible in light of the nature of a work, and the purpose and manner of its exploitation etc.
Article 13 (Right to Preserve the Integrity) (1) The author shall have the right to preserve the integrity of the content, form, and title of his work.
(2) The author shall not object to a modification falling under any of the following Subparagraphs: provided that substantial modification has not been made <Amended on April 22, 2009>:
1. In the case where a work is used in accordance with Article 25, a modification of expression within the limit as deemed unavoidable for the purpose of school education;
2. Extension, rebuilding, or other form of alteration of architecture;
3. Modification within the limit as deemed necessary to enable programs that can be used only on specific computers to be used on other computers;
4. Modification within the limit as deemed necessary to use programs more effectively on specific computers; and
5. Other modifications within the limit as deemed unavoidable in the light of the nature of a work, and the purpose and manner of its exploitation etc.
Article 14 (Inalienability of Author’s Moral Rights) (1) Author’s moral rights shall belong exclusively to the author.