Police nab three suspects for illegally copying movie
Published: 18 Sep. 2009, 02:34
Police said yesterday that a man named Kim, a sound engineer for the Korea Blind Union, and two friends illegally spread on the Internet a copy of the latest Korean blockbuster, “Haeundae.” Kim has been arrested while the police plan to request arrest warrants for the other two.
According to the police Cyber Terror Response Center, Kim received a high-definition computer file of the film from CJ Entertainment, the movie’s official distributor, on July 17, five days before its official release.
Kim was in charge of inserting scene descriptions for the visually impaired. On the same day, Kim gave a DVD copy of the file to his friend Go, a hair designer who two days later left for China for a personal trip. There, he watched the DVD with his friends.
One of those friends uploaded the file on Aug. 28 on a peer-to-peer site. The file rapidly spread among Internet users the next day. File sharing sites immediately deleted the files at the request of CJ, but it was too late.
“In a matter of 20 days after it was leaked, the movie file spread across a total of 160 P2P and Web sites and over 100,000 citizens are estimated to have watched the film,” said Choi In-seok from the response center.
He said Kim appeared to have little perception of copyright infringement, and said the suspects “just intended to share the film but didn’t think it was a crime.”
CJ wasn’t overly cautious about copyright issues either, since it didn’t sign a security agreement with the Korea Blind Union, according to police. A CJ spokesman said, “We admit neglecting security measures.”
Although Internet piracy is rampant in Korea, films are mostly shared after they have been made into DVDs or featured on subscription-based Internet TV.
Since a high-definition version of Haeundae was leaked when the movie was still in cinemas nationwide, CJ suspected an insider as the probable perpetrator.
The audience for the movie surpassed the 10 million mark on Sept. 7, making fourth among Korea’s all-time most-seen films.
The film has been sold to 24 countries. It was released in China on Aug. 25.
By Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]
According to the police Cyber Terror Response Center, Kim received a high-definition computer file of the film from CJ Entertainment, the movie’s official distributor, on July 17, five days before its official release.
Kim was in charge of inserting scene descriptions for the visually impaired. On the same day, Kim gave a DVD copy of the file to his friend Go, a hair designer who two days later left for China for a personal trip. There, he watched the DVD with his friends.
One of those friends uploaded the file on Aug. 28 on a peer-to-peer site. The file rapidly spread among Internet users the next day. File sharing sites immediately deleted the files at the request of CJ, but it was too late.
“In a matter of 20 days after it was leaked, the movie file spread across a total of 160 P2P and Web sites and over 100,000 citizens are estimated to have watched the film,” said Choi In-seok from the response center.
He said Kim appeared to have little perception of copyright infringement, and said the suspects “just intended to share the film but didn’t think it was a crime.”
CJ wasn’t overly cautious about copyright issues either, since it didn’t sign a security agreement with the Korea Blind Union, according to police. A CJ spokesman said, “We admit neglecting security measures.”
Although Internet piracy is rampant in Korea, films are mostly shared after they have been made into DVDs or featured on subscription-based Internet TV.
Since a high-definition version of Haeundae was leaked when the movie was still in cinemas nationwide, CJ suspected an insider as the probable perpetrator.
The audience for the movie surpassed the 10 million mark on Sept. 7, making fourth among Korea’s all-time most-seen films.
The film has been sold to 24 countries. It was released in China on Aug. 25.
By Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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