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Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Abstract

Korea has grown to be one of the Internet powers in a short period. Because of insufficient copyright protection, Korea recently revised the Korean Copyright Act to reinforce protection of copyright and promote sound distribution of copyrighted works. The new law allows the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism to issue orders and the Korea Copyright Commission to issue recommendations. Orders and recommendations are distinguished by the subject of the issuance and the legal force. Orders and recommendations enable online service providers to delete or stop transmission of illegal reproductions, give warning notices to infringers, or suspend the account of repetitive infringers. The “three strikes” policy is controversial and has raised several constitutional concerns. First, the suspension of the repeat infringer’s account may be an unconstitutional violation of the infringer’s freedom of speech. Second, an executive agency’s decision to issue a correction order could be an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers. The final concern is that the policy violates the principles of due process. This Article examines the “three strikes” policy, the constitutional concerns regarding the policy, and possible policy revisions for more effective copyright protection.

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