South Korea was the first country to pass a “Three strikes” or “graduated response” law on March 3, 2009. France was the first country to introduce a similar three-strikes bill called Hadopi but it is still being litigated (BoingBoing has been tracking the French law but has not as yet written about the Korean law). The provision gives the Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism the authority to order ISPs to send warning letters to users who violate copyright, and to order them to suspend users’ Internet connections for up to six months. The law has been in effect since July of 2009. The bill was modified later but originally it was for permanent termination of users’ internet connection.
The South Korean government has been boasting about being the most wired country in the world; at the same time the country has been increasingly tightening its IP laws. Most of their posts are in Korean, but an organization called 정보공유연대 IP Left (Chung Bo Yun Dae IP Left) has been following the changes in Korean IP law and mobilizing and educating about these IP issues. It’s good to see civil society organizations put forth resistance toward these shifts away from democratic ideals.
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