South Korea Adopts "Three-Strikes" Law on File-Sharing

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 16, 2009 - 10:00am.

Seoul, South Korea - South Korea recently passed a new law that will see the Internet connections of repeat file-swappers suspended or disconnected, and also gives the government wide latitude in shutting down sites that are found hosting even a few copyrighted files, Ars Technica reported, citing a Korea Times article. France and New Zealand are currently looking to adopt similar "three-strikes" legislation that compels ISPs to disconnect repeat file-swappers.

Individuals in Korea who have their accounts suspended due to file-sharing can also be blacklisted by other ISPs.

Another section of Korea's new law, which goes into effect later this year, lets the government shut down for up to six months websites that host unauthorized copyrighted content.

Some larger websites that host user-generated content say this is unfair, for despite employing software and personnel to monitor and remove copyrighted content, some content will remain available long enough to be flagged by the government.

Google's YouTube recently blocked video uploads and comments for users in South Korea, which has enacted another law that now requires real-name identification for such activities.

http://snipurl.com/g1koq (Ars Technica)