Warn 79 sites of “large scale” lawsuits unless they take measures to prevent copyright infringement by users a little over a month before the country becomes the first in the world to have a “three-strikes” system targeting illegal file-sharing.
South Korea’s 3 national TV companies, KBS, MBC, and SBS, issued a joint statement recently threatening 79 P2P and content hosting sites with “large scale” lawsuit unless they take steps to prevent users from sharing copies of their TV shows illegally online.
“We will continue to negotiate with companies that are aggressive in introducing measures to protect the copyrighted broadcasting content,” said the letter. “But we will fight companies that are passive in introducing better protection and continue to violate copyrights with a large-scale litigation campaign.”
Some of the 79 companies named include:include SK Communications, the operator of Nate, the country’s third-most popular search site, Cyworld, a popular social networking service, Mgoon, an online video service, file-sharing services such as Nowcom, which was also sued by a movie industry lobby last year, Wedisk, Endisk, and Idisk, operated by Paran, a search engine and portal.
Nate and Cyworld are apparently popular destinations for online videos, both for copyrighted and user-generated content, and the massive traffic generated by the Web sites has television stations taking a closer watch on copyright infringement.
The news comes as the clock ticks down to next month when South Korea will become the first country to institute a “three-strikes” plan that will disconnect users and shutter websites after a third warning over copyright infringement.
Earlier this year, South Korea’s National Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting & Communications (CCSTB&C) passed a bill to amend the country’s copyright law that forces ISPs to send letters to accused file-sharers warning them to stop, and orders them to suspend – for up to six months – the accounts of those who fail to comply.
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