Copyright infringement cases triple in 2009

SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Yonhap) -- The number of copyright infringement cases monitored
last year tripled to more than 35,000, but the sharp increase derives from
intensified crackdown efforts rather than an actual growth in piracy, a
government report said Thursday.
According to the annual report by Korea Copyright Commission, a state-run piracy
monitor, it detected 35,345 cases of copyright violations from online storage
sites, peer-to-peer file sharing sites and portals last year, nearly three times
the 2008 tally of 11,927.
"Since the implementation of the revised copyright law, government monitoring has
expanded in scope from its initial targets of software and game industries to
cinema and publishing and other regular copyright products, and review and
monitoring systems have been replenished," the copyright commission said in a
statement.
Software copyrights were most frequently violated, with its tally of 20,861 cases
accounting for 59 percent of the total. Video and music files came second with
11,324 cases or 32 percent, followed in distance by cartoons and books with 3,160
cases, or 9 percent.
About two thirds of the illegal files were deleted or suspended from their Web
sites, and the rest received warnings, the commission said. The increased
penalization comes with the introduction of a sharpened copyright law in July.
"The increase of the regulated cases cannot be interpreted as a sheer increase of
illegal piracy," Hyeon Yeong-min, a anti-piracy official at the commission said.
"The major reason comes from a strengthened crackdown."
hkim@yna.co.kr
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