Amendment of the Copyright Act Passes the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee

Overview

The government has been focused on developing the contents industry as a national strategic industry and promoting the global expansion of K-culture. As part of these efforts, the general meeting of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee approved a partial amendment of the Copyright Act (Bill No. 2215125, “Proposed Amendment”) on November 28, 2025, to respond to pirated contents. The Proposed Amendment is pending in the plenary session of the National Assembly.

Despite efforts by the government and the National Assembly to prevent distribution of pirated contents, including establishing mandatory measures for Content Delivery Network (CDN) providers under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, illegal websites continue to rapidly proliferate and frequently change their domains based on foreign servers.

The Proposed Amendment aims to define the act of sharing a link to a pirated content as an independent infringing act and introduces an emergency blocking system against pirated contents to secure swift response capacity and strengthen sanctions against copyright infringers by enhancing statutory penalties and punitive damages (up to 5x). The key contents and implications of the Proposed Amendment are detailed below.

Key Changes

Introduction of provisions on deemed copyright infringement regarding pirated contents (Article 124(1)4 and 5)

In its en banc decision in 2021, the Supreme Court held (No. 2017Do19025) that the act of commercially and continuously providing links could be punished for aiding and abetting copyright infringement. Accordingly, linking to pirated contents will be deemed an independent infringing act; persons who operate websites, social media notice boards and chat rooms providing such links, or who post such links for commercial purposes will be treated as infringers and directly punished. Such “deemed infringing acts” include:

Knowingly conducting commercial activities such as operating websites, or social media notice boards and chat rooms to provide connection to pirated contents;
Knowingly posting information to connect to pirated contents on the above websites, or social media notice boards and chat rooms

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency are granted stronger authority to block access to pirated contents (introducing emergency blocking system)

The Proposed Amendment further clarifies that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (“MCST”) and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency (“KCOPA”) have the authority to block access to pirated contents. The Proposed Amendment also simplifies procedures for the MCST and KCOPA to prevent distribution of pirated contents, including the measures described below:

Order and advice to take access blocking measures on online service providers (Article 133-2(1)3 and Article 133-3(1)4)

If control cannot be achieved through existing measures (warnings, deletions, etc.), the MCST and KCOPA may order and advise, respectively, online service providers to block access to pirated contents following review by the Copyright Protection Deliberation Committee (“Committee”).
Emergency blocking order on online service providers (Article 133-4)

The MCST may also order an online service provider to block access to pirated contents even before the Committee’s review (“emergency block”). However, such emergency block may only be implemented upon satisfaction of the following requirements:

Established fact of transmitting pirated contents through information and communications networks
Clear infringement of rights
Urgent necessity to prevent irrecoverable damages
Acknowledgement that there are no other available measures than access blocking

An online service provider who fails to implement the order is subject to a fine not exceeding KRW 10 million.

Upon ordering an emergency block, the Minister of the MCST must immediately notify such fact to the Committee, which then must review and resolve on whether to maintain or lift the order within five days. An alleged publisher or manager of the pirated contents subject to emergency block may file an objection within five days from the date of the block, in which case, the MCST must immediately remove emergency block.

Enhancement of civil/criminal sanctions on infringement

In addition to the introduction of the above provisions, the Proposed Amendment enhances civil and criminal sanctions on infringement of rights.

Introduction of punitive damage compensation (Article 125(4) and (5))

The Proposed Amendment also introduces a punitive damage compensation system so that courts may determine a compensation amount not exceeding five times the acknowledged amount of damages.

In determining the compensation amount, the following factors are considered: (i) the degree of awareness of intent or the risk of damage; (ii) the size of damages suffered by the copyright holder; (iii) economic profit gained by the infringement due to the infringing act; (iv) the content and degree of criminal punishment imposed on the infringer due to the infringing act; (v) the period and frequency of the infringing act; (vi) the infringer’s financial standing; and (vii) measures taken by the infringer after committing the infringing act.
Upward adjustment of statutory punishment (Article 136(1))

The statutory sanction amount on an infringer of property rights (including property right of copyright) will be adjusted upwards from “imprisonment not exceeding five years or a fine not exceeding KRW 50 million” to “imprisonment not exceeding seven years or a fine not exceeding KRW 100 million.”

Next Steps and Implications

The Proposed Amendment was reviewed by the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee on December 10, and will be submitted to the National Assembly’s plenary session soon. According to the Proposed Amendment, the date of enforcement will be six months after promulgation, and provisions on access blocking and emergency blocks will be applicable three months after promulgation. Provisions on damage compensation will be applicable at the time of infringement after law enforcement.

Under the Proposed Amendment, sharing links online for commercial purposes will be deemed an infringement of rights, and thus following the Proposed Amendment, online service providers will need to carefully manage legal risk, particularly as the level of sanctions on copyright infringement will be heightened through the punitive damage compensation system and the upward adjustment of the statutory punishment. Companies are advised to closely observe subsequent legislative developments and inspect their monitoring systems ahead of promulgation to prevent any sharing of illegal links in their services, and appropriately update their terms of use and operation policies.

[Korean Version]

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