Value context and insight. lkm@koreatimes.co.kr
Singer accused of illegal movie downloads
By Lee Kyung-min
Kim Jang-hoon
By Lee Kyung-min
Rock singer Kim Jang-hoon is facing an investigation for illegally downloading movies.
A civic group called the Young’s Liberty Union filed a complaint with the prosecution on Tuesday, demanding an investigation into allegations that Kim infringed on copyrights after he posted on Twitter last week that he downloaded the recently released Hollywood action movie “Taken 3.”
Kim wrote, “I download a movie, ‘Taken 3.’ And guess what? The subtitles are in Arabic. I cannot concentrate on the movie scenes that are supposed to be sad and serious.”
The civic group leader Ham Min-woo said Kim’s action was worse than careless.
“Kim is a renowned rock singer in Korea. And as such he should have the utmost respect regarding copyright protection. It is more than right to publicly condemn this casual attitude towards the core principle that underpins his livelihood,” said Ham.
Also, another netizen said he wrote a letter of complaint with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), an American trade association that represents the six major Hollywood studios and is an advocate of copyright protection.
Following the public criticism, Kim wrote apologies saying he thought the download was legal because he paid money.
“I apologize for not having known the specifics about what is legal or not. I paid money before downloading the file, so I thought there was nothing illegal in the matter. Also the account was not mine. It was my manager’s,” he said.
The key to determining the legality of the download is whether the money paid by the viewer was delivered to the content producer, or the copyright holder, according to a lawyer.
Copyright infringement is a crime punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years and fines of up to 50 million won.
In a related court ruling, a court on Tuesday issued 34.8 million won ($31,500) in fines to 49 netizens who illegally shared movies online.
The Seoul Central District Court found the 49 guilty of copyright infringement ordering them to compensate the amount to the United Pictures Corp., a film production and distribution company.
Each individual was ordered to pay from 200,000 won up to 1 million won depending on the frequency and the number of the movies they downloaded.
The film company had a contract with a web company to provide its content.
However, the film company filed the suit after it discovered some 63 netizens shared their content at a thirtieth of the set price from January through November 2011.
The remaining 14 were acquitted of such charges because they used a proper download channel.