By Na Jeong-ju
The Economist, a British weekly magazine, has filed a lawsuit against a major language institute in southern Seoul for using its articles and columns for English lessons without its permission.
This is the first time that a foreign publisher has sued a Korean language institute for alleged copyright theft. The move could trigger a string of similar lawsuits because many cram schools and institutes here have used not only foreign newspapers and magazines but also local publications in classes.
According to the Seocho Police Station, Wednesday, the Economist filed the complaint in late October against DYB Choisun Language Institute through a law firm.
The institute, based in Daechi-dong, operates over 10 branches in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, providing lessons to some 20,000 elementary and secondary school students.
The British magazine claimed in its suit that the institute earned tens of billions of won in illegal profits between 2009 and 2011 by using its copyrighted content for lectures in classrooms and on the Internet as well as in advertisements.
It even used original texts to make books and sold them to students, the magazine said.
“We discovered a total of 54 cases of copyright infringement by DYB Choisun,” a lawyer for the Economist said, asking not to be named.
Police said they have summoned the institute’s CEO Song Oh-hyun and its lecturers for questioning. The case will be referred to the prosecution soon for further investigation.
The institute reportedly admitted that it used the magazine’s articles and columns to teach English. However, it claimed many of its competitors are also using foreign publications for lectures.
“Such a practice is very common here,” an institute official said. “We stopped using the Economist’s content in 2011 after receiving a complaint from the magazine. We tried to settle this dispute through negotiations, but couldn’t do so.”
Lawyers for the magazine also raised allegations that the institute dodged a huge amount of taxes by reporting a smaller annual income to authorities than it actually earned.
In an interview with a local daily in 2011, Song said the institute’s turnover in the year reached 80 billion won. However, it reported only 10 billion won, the lawyers said.