Providers held liable in net crash

The Korea Communications Commission, an arm of the Ministry of Information and Communication, said yesterday that four Internet service providers must pay damages to subscribers for losses incurred during the Jan. 25 nationwide network crash. The broadband operators failed to provide enough evidence to support their argument that the incident was beyond their control, the commission said. "This is the world's first decision in which Internet service providers were held responsible for accidental losses of Internet connections if the cause was not force majeure," said Kim Jeong-ryeol, an official at the commission. "The significance is that the rights of Internet users have been increased." The commission said, however, that because the creators of the computer worm that crippled the Internet were also responsible for the outage, it would not impose damage settlements of triple the losses to users. It said it would allow Internet users to recover actual damages. Green Consumers Network, a civic group, had asked the commission to review the matter on behalf of 23 broadband subscribers. by Kim Hyo-jin