By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
Korea has taken the initiative in dealing with online copyright problems by legalizing the uploading of TV programs to the Internet under certain conditions.
Pandora TV, the nation's top-tier video-sharing site operator, said Monday that it had reached an agreement under which Web users can upload short video clips from SBS, one of the major terrestrial broadcasters here, without prior permission.
"As long as the length of video footage is not longer than three minutes, anybody will be allowed to upload them onto Pandora TV's Web site," CEO Kim Kyung-ik said.
"We will strive to reach similar contracts with other major broadcasters here in the not-so-distant future while attempting to extend the length of the free-to-upload video clips," he said.
Under the agreement, Internet users are able to upload edited or original SBS programs to Pandora this year. The uploaded contents are also allowed to be streamed on other community sites.
Most programs including soap operas, entertainment and sports are applicable to the contract with the exception of news.
In return for the unprecedented concession, advertising income from the programs uploaded to Pandora would be shared by SBS and Pandora, which currently shows commercials both at the start and end of its video files.
The system is to some extent similar to the content identification offered by Youtube, which lets copyright holders check whether user-uploaded videos are partial or not.
On identifying their own contents uploaded without permission, the copyright holders have two options - they can ask Youtube to block them or they can monetize them via commercials on the video clips.
Even though it hardly happens, uploading copyrighted videos or audios onto Youtube without getting prior approval might be subject to legal action since it is basically unlawful in most cases.
In comparison, Pandora has legalized the uploading of short video clips from SBS.
"This offers a win-win solution in grappling with the long-lasting copyright issues for both broadcasters and end users," Kim said.
Experts feel the new scheme will work.
"The Pandora TV-SBS contract heralds the start of a new era when TV programs are freely distributed through the Internet without having to worry about copyright," said a Seoul analyst who asked not to be named.
"Broadcasters have not been happy with the idea up until now. But they should learn that they might earn bigger money by being less stringent on copyrights, not the other way around," he said.