Korea to open copyright watchdog

The Korea Communications Standards Commission opened a copyright infringement response center on Tuesday to protect local content from being illegally copied and distributed, announced the commission.

The response center comes as a means to tackle websites that have servers based overseas, where local laws cannot reach, and have local content, such as webtoons and movies, posted without permission.

Although the current law touches on illegal copying and copyright infringement, the police have had difficulties keeping track of distributors if they have servers based abroad.

The commission “blocked” certain websites from being accessed in Korea, but was not able to actually shut the sites down.

According to the commission, the number of blocked websites went from less than 50 in 2014 to over 2,338 in 2015.

The response center will monitor websites with pirated content more thoroughly and come up with quicker and stronger measurements, and shorten the procedures for the people to report infringement cases to the commission.

By Yoon So-yeon