Crackdown nabs 39 uploaders for digital theft

By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, March 5 (Yonhap) -- Prosecutors indicted 39 people last month for
uploading illegal copies of films and broadcast materials onto local Web sites,
the culture ministry said Thursday, the largest indictment since a nationwide
crackdown on digital piracy was launched last year.

South Korea, often criticized for its loose enforcement of anti-piracy laws,
pledged to get tougher on digital theft following the inauguration of the Lee
Myung-bak government a year ago.
Digital theft is blamed for an annual loss of more than 2 trillion won (US$1.34
billion) in South Korea, the world's most wired country, with nearly 20,000 files
of copyrighted content circulating illegally last year alone, according to recent
government data.
The individuals charged last month were described as "heavy uploaders" who
received money from Internet service providers in return for posting more than
1,000 files on local peer-to-peer sites, the culture ministry said after
disclosing the results of the crackdown on intellectual property rights
violations launched last September.
Up to 98 percent of those charged were male and about 70 percent were college
students or unemployed people in their 20s and 30s. Twelve had been previously
convicted of breaking copyright and computer program protection laws. Many
operated using fake IDs.
"We plan to strengthen punishment and expand the crackdown this year to
completely root out digital piracy," said Mo Chul-min, head of the ministry's
cultural contents bureau.
"We also plan to seek a technological solution to the issue by operating a
24-hour monitoring system to track down illegal trading on the Internet."
Last month, a court sentenced the chiefs of the country's four top Internet
service providers to one year in prison and a 30 million won fine for
facilitating illegal distribution of copyrighted content. The case marked the
first time criminal charges had ever been brought against illegal online
activity.
Service providers say that today's Internet users have now become "too
tech-savvy" for them to handle and that a solution should be sought by the
government.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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