Seoul mulls ‘treble damages’ for illegal K-content websites

The South Korean government and the ruling People Power Party are considering tripling punitive damages to illegal distributors of Korean entertainment content from music to film and webtoons, according to the culture ministry and the ruling party on Monday.

Asia’s No. 4 economy has emerged as a cultural hub, led by the global sensation BTS and digital comic series webtoons, as well as award-winning drama series such as "Squid Game."

But illegal distribution websites such as NooNoo TV, shut down in April this year, resulted in 5 trillion won ($3.9 billion) estimated losses for the Korean entertainment sector, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said in a statement.

“In order to crack down on the illegal distribution of content, we will actively consider introducing a punitive damages system and raising the sentencing standards in consultation with the Sentencing Committee of the Supreme Court,” Park Dae-chul, the ruling party's chief policymaker told a media briefing on Monday.

The meeting comes about a week after Lee Yong-ho, a ruling party member of the National Assembly’s culture and sports committee, proposed amending laws to triple the amount of compensatory damages caused by the illegal distribution of video content.

The proposed bill includes authorizing public officials overseeing those websites to directly investigate them in the field.

A main opposition Democratic Party member has suggested harsher punitive action: five times the actual damages. The opposition party holds the majority in Parliament.

In this regard, a culture ministry in attendance at the briefing said that it needs to be further discussed at the National Assembly to determine the multiple at which the damages will be set.   

The ruling party will also submit a bill to block access to copyright-infringing websites.

As for overseas-domiciled illegal content distributors, Seoul is seeking to form joint investigation teams with Washington and sign an international treaty to strengthen collaboration with international police.

After its shutdown of NooNoo TV in April, homegrown over-the-top channels, including Tving, attracted 1 million new subscribers, the culture ministry said.

Write to Kyung-Mok Roh at autonomy@hankyung.com


Yeonhee Kim edited this article.