[1] The history of the Korean copyright law dates to 1908, when during the occupation of Korea, the Japanese copyright law was extended to cover the Korean territories in the form of the international treaty between the United States and Japan on the Protection of Industrial Property in Korea.
[3] As of 1999, acts of criminal copyright infringement were punishable with a prison term of up to three years and a fine of up to three million won.
Article 133bis of the Korean Copyright Act allows the Korean Copyright Commission to request that the ISPs suspend the accounts of repeat file-sharing offenders, as determined by the Commission, for six months, and to upgrade this request to a demand if the Ministry becomes involved; the ISP has to follow the Ministry-backed demand or face a fine.
Kyu Ho Youm noted that since the 1980s, copyright law has been transformed "from a largely ignored legal notion to a hotly debated concept in and out of court".
[1] While the Korean copyright law has some unique characteristics, it has heavily drawn from foreign examples—particularly those of the United States.
[1] Freedom of panorama in Korea is limited with regard to works of art in public places which cannot be distributed for commercial purposes.