Copyright

1) Protection under the treaties to which the Republic of Korea has acceded or which it has ratified. The works of non-Koreans shall be protected in accordance with the treaties to which the Republic of Korea has acceded or which it has ratified (Article 3-(1)). Also protected are the works of nationals of foreign countries that have acceded to the Universal Copyright Convention, which entered into force in Korea Oct 1, 1987, to the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against Unauthorized Duplication of their Phonograms, which entered into force in Korea On Oct 10, 1987, to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, including Trade in Counterfeit Goods, which entered into force in Korea on Jan 1, 1995 (actually entered into force on Oct 10, 1987 when revised laws became effective), and to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Library and Artistic Works, which entered into force in Korea on Aug 21, 1996. The scope of protection covers the works of foreign authors who died or made their works public after 1957 or who are still alive.

2) The works of non-Koreans who permanently reside in the Republic of Korea or whose works are first made public in the Republic of Korea . Even the works of non-Koreans whose country is not a party to the treaties to which the Republic of Korea has acceded shall be protected as equally as the works of Koreans if they permanently reside in the Republic of Korea or if they are foreign juristic persons having their principal office in the Republic of Korea. Also, non-Koreans' works, which are first made public in the Republic of Korea or which are made public in the Republic of Korea within 30 days after they make a work public in a foreign country, shall be protected under the Act. (Article 3-(2)).

3) In the case of a foreign country concerned that does not protect the works of the nationals of the Republic of Korea .
Even when non-Koreans' works are to be protected under the Act, but if the foreign country concerned does not protect the works of the nationals of the Republic of Korea, their protection under those treaties and the Act may be correspondingly restricted (Article 3-(3) of the Act). This is called the principle of reciprocity. If a computer program is not protected under the copyright act in a foreign country party to a treaty to which the Republic of Korea acceded, the Republic of Korea does not have to protect the work of the computer program because the foreign country concerned does not protect the works of the nationals of the Republic of Korea .

4) Protection of works according to copyright protection period, deigned by nations.
Every state has its own copyright protection period. In Korea authors' copyright in a work is protected during the lifetime of the author, with an additional period of 50 years after the death of the author. The protection period varies from 70 years to 25 years by country. In this case, a country reciprocally protects a work as long as the other country protects it, applying the shorter period of the two. A work that is simultaneously made public in more than two countries is generally protected during the shortest period of all.

1) The personal copyright is the right to protect the author's honor and his or her personal profits that are stored in his or her work. The Copyright Act regulates such personal copyright as the publication rights, name notification rights and identity rights. The personal copyright is the right that can be exercised only by an author, and it is non-transferable and non-inheritable, and is identified as inalienable. Therefore, once the author is deceased, his or her personal copyright is considered terminated, however, the Copyright Act continues to protect an author's personal profits even after his or her death.

2) The content of the personal copyright is as follows :

A. Publication right: This is the right of an author to decide whether to publish his or her work to the public or not. The publication of a work does not mean only publication by printing (in other words, production of enough volume of copies and distribution of them to meet public demand) but also implies performing, broadcasting and or exhibiting.

B. Name notification right: This is the right of an author to indicate his or her name on his or her work. The indicated name does not have to be his or her given name (real name). The author may use a pseudonymor any other sobriquet. When the author uses his or her nickname, the term of protection period of his or her work may be subject to a disadvantage and be relatively shortened. On the other hand, one who accesses another's work is obligated to notify the name of the author.

C. Identity right: This is the right that enables an author to prohibit any unreasonable changes or modifications of his or her production. Only the author has authority to change or to modify the content, format and title of his or her production. However, while his or her work is being published or performed, any inevitable modification shall be agreed and accepted by the author.

3)  When there is intentional or unintentional infringement of personal copyright, an author is entitled to claim for the damages. Also, he or she may claim for measures to recover his or her dignity. In the event of the author's death, any user of the work shall not take any action that could not have been done if the author was still alive, for such actions may be considered as an infringement of personal copyright. In this case, when such infringement occurs, any family members or legal executor of his or her may claim damages as well. Although in such case, if the infringement is not considered as harmful to the author's dignity, according to general social standards, such claim right is invalidated

1) Property copyright are the property rights granting that an author may obtain profits as he or she exercises his or her copyright either by him or herself or by permitting others to exercise it. The property copyright can be divided into several categories, depending on how a work is accessed. The Copyright Act recognizes six rights, such as copyright, performance-rights, broadcast rights, exhibition-rights, distribution-rights and secondary reproduction and access rights. The explanations for these rights given to an author are as follows:

A. Copyright: It is a right to reproduce a work in materialized format, such as by prints, photographs, photocopies, records, tapes and other objects. The Copyright Act states that an author has ‘a right to copy' his or her work. Actually, it means that an author has a right either to permit or to ban others to copy his or her work. Forms of storage used by computer devices, such as storing works onto disks and diskettes, and as uploading and downloading works through communication devices like networks are also considered as copying.

B. Performance rights: Theater-plays, movies and music are published using methods of performance such as acting and viewing. A speech to the public may also be considered a performance. The right to publicize a work to the public, by using such methods is called the ‘performance right'. For instance, a composer has the right to permit another to play his or her music at a concert. The author of a script or play has the right to permit actors to play his or her work to the public by performing his or her drama.

C. Broadcast rights: This is the right to transmit works in the forms of voice, sound and image using wire and wireless communication devices. For instance, a composer has the right to permit a broadcasting company to broadcast his or her music. Broadcasting includes real time broadcasting as well as a broadcast of recorded sounds and images of works. A simultaneous broadcast of a program after receiving it from another transmitter, which may be a review is also considered as a separate broadcast activity, and requires the authorization of the author.

D. Exhibition rights: This is the “right to exhibit” the original or copies of the original artistic creative work. Exhibit means a placement of works in a condition in which the public may view them freely. The works that are the objects of an exhibition right are mostly artistic creative works, photographic artwork and architectural artwork.

E. Distribution rights: This is the right to either transfer or rent an original or copies of works to the public. For instance, when a novelist permits copyright, he or she is not only permitting others to copy his or her novel but also to distribute copies, so a publisher who prints his or her novel can also sell copies to the public. The important thing in this case is that once a publisher who is authorized to distribute sells either the original or the copies of the original work, the one who purchased from this distributor can not resell or rent the purchased item.

F. Secondary production and access rights: This is the right to edit musical and literary works, to modify formats and plots of works and to manufacture a work into images, as to recreate the originality and to access such secondary productions. A secondary product means a reproduction of an original work using methods like translating, modifying, editing and creating images of it. Though secondary products are considered as an independent creation separated from the original work, because they contain the content of the original, for access to such productions, permission from the original author is needed.

2) Such property copyright is called secondary property right and is transferable in part or as a whole, and it can be transferred within limited terms and regions. Once the right is transferred, the author loses his or her privileges, and the new property copyright holder by transfer obtains legal control over the transferred work.