September 12, 2009 – A group of U.S. and Japanese porn companies will re-file a lawsuit next week against Korean uploaders, their legal representative here said yesterday, accusing the country of holding a double standard in investigating copyright violations of local and foreign material.
Some 50 foreign firms sued 10,000 Korean Internet users in July for uploading their adult material onto local Web sites, but prosecutors limited their investigation to those confirmed to have uploaded content more than three times. Only 10 were punished.
The porn companies said they will re-file with a list of 65,000 netizens who fit Seoul’s investigation criteria, the agency said.
The companies stepped up their protest after Korean prosecutors launched a probe into the digital theft of local blockbuster “Haeundae,” one of this year’s biggest hits, breaking the 10 million viewer mark last month. They say the applied standards and the intensity of the prosecution’s investigation into copied foreign porn material were vastly different from those in the Haeundae piracy case.
“We believe that [the prosecution] should not be discriminatory in applying copyright laws,” an official at the legal firm said. “Illegal copying and distribution run rampant in Korea because it is one of the world’s most wired countries. We decided to take legal action to minimize our past business losses and to protect anticipated future profits.” The firm warned that the porn companies will consider taking their case to the U.S. government should they judge Seoul’s investigation to be discriminatory.
