Tougher regulations on digital theft take effect this week

(ATTN: ADDS crackdown results in paras 5-6)
SEOUL, July 20 (Yonhap) -- People who illegally upload music or movies in South
Korea can be barred from file-sharing sites under new regulations that go into
effect this week, the government said Monday.
Approved by parliament in April, the measures take effect Thursday and require
file-sharing Web sites to ban frequent providers of copyrighted materials for a
maximum of six months.
Sites that ignore the government warning more than three times can be fined up to
10 million won (US$8,000), according to the culture ministry.
"The current revision is focused on blocking the circulation of illegal files by
regulating the uploaders and does not include any heavier criminal charges," said
Kim Young-san, a policymaker at the ministry's copyright division. "But illegal
uploaders can face indemnity or civil suits."
Police nabbed 112 people during the first half of this year for illegally
uploading copyrighted materials and providing such files on Web sites, the
ministry said.
This included the owner of two major peer-to-peer sites with some 500,000
members, and 50 on-line service providers will also be fined up to 400 million
won, according to the ministry.
South Korea has often been criticized for its loose enforcement of anti-piracy
laws, but the Lee Myung-bak government pledged to get tougher on illegal file
sharing.
Digital theft is blamed for an annual loss of more than 2 trillion won in South
Korea, the world's most wired country, with nearly 20,000 files of copyrighted
content circulating illegally last year alone, according to government data.
In February, a court sentenced the chiefs of the country's four top Web portals
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 on-line activity.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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