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The proposed revision of the copyright law, which is now being discussed in the National Assembly, seriously violates the Constitution by using copyright to protect investments rather than the public good. Moreover, it also aggravates the already precarious situation of "digital libraries" by prohibiting access from outside the library. We strongly insist that the revision should not be passed because it will tremendously damage the public interest.

Copyright as investment protection?
According to article 22(2) of the Constitution, "The rights of writers, inventors, technicians and artists are protected by law." Accordingly, the basis for lawful protection is whether a work contains "creativity" or not. But the proposed revision grants copyright status to even databases, which they do not contain any aspects of individual creativity. This is against the spirit of the Constitution and degrades copyright into a law solely for investment protection. The ultimate purpose of copyright is not to protect private investment but to improve culture and art--the public realm. And there is no country in the world that protects databases which has non-creativity with a copyright law. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is trying to drive the revision into legislation, bringing it into conflict with the Ministry of Information and Communication, which drafted the "Law of Digital Contents Industry Development" last year.

Digital libraries for whom?
Libraries play a key role of public access to knowledge across and despite social, political, and regional differences. They help narrow the gap between the information "haves" and "have-nots." Because of this, copyright protection is restricted in the case of libraries by article 28 of the copyright law. This critical function should be justly preserved in the digital environment. Furthermore, digital libraries should be supported by the government so that it fulfills its society duty, especially in light of the poor public library infrastructure in South Korea. However, digital libraries cannot perform its proper role because the copyright law prohibits access from outside the library. If one has to visit the library in order to read online materials, then what is the difference between digital libraries and non-digital libraries? If the copyright revision passes, digital libraries will soon stop working altogether because it will limit the maximum number of people who can simultaneously access online materials, and prohibit data transmission between libraries as well.

Secure the Public Interest! Share All Information!
Digitization has increased access to information and has significantly made communication easier. Such a change caused the conflicts between digital environment and copyright. But, We believe that the South Korean government does not have a fundamental understanding of the digital era, and will make a policy to protect the interests of investors and copyright holders unilaterally, thereby crippling the public interest. The informatization of the government has proved to be limited only to the "development of the information industry." We demand that informatization should not be based on monopoly and exclusion, but on sharing, which will benefit both creators and users. It is not too late for the government to start examining the conflicts between the digital environment and copyright, and to make wise social decisions on that matter. At the very least, the copyright law should be based on the mutually-agreed balance between copyright holders and users. Therefore, the present revision should be stopped right away.

- Stop the revision of the copyright law that is only for investors and copyright holders!
- The National assembly should not pass the revision!
- Support digital libraries in order to protect the public interest!

25, April 2002

Citizens Network for Cultural Reform
Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet
IPLeft
Labornet Korea
Newspaper of the science and engineering college of Seoul National University
People's Movement For Expansion of Digital Contents and Reading Society