The National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee Approves an Amendment to the Copyright Act to Address Pirated Content

Overview

The government has been focused on developing the contents industry as a national strategic industry and promoting the global expansion of K-culture. As part of these efforts, the general meeting of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee approved a partial amendment to the Copyright Act (Bill No. 2215125, "Proposed Amendment") on November 28, 2025, to respond to pirated content. The Proposed Amendment is pending in the plenary session of the National Assembly.

Despite efforts by the government and the National Assembly to prevent the distribution of pirated content, including the establishment of mandatory measures for Content Delivery Network (CDN) providers under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, illegal websites using offshore servers continue to rapidly proliferate and frequently change their domains.

The Proposed Amendment makes the act of sharing a link to pirated content an independent infringing act; introduces an emergency blocking system against pirated content to secure swift response capacity; and strengthens sanctions against copyright infringers by enhancing statutory penalties and introducing punitive damages (up to 5x). The key contents and implications of the Proposed Amendment are detailed below.

Key Changes

Linking to pirated content is deemed an infringing act (Article 124(1)4 and 5)

In an en banc decision in 2021, the Supreme Court held that the act of commercially and continuously providing links could be punished for aiding and abetting copyright infringement (No. 2017Do19025). Accordingly, linking to pirated content will be deemed an independent infringing act; persons who operate websites, social media notice boards and chat rooms providing such links, or who post such links for commercial purposes will be treated as infringers and directly punished. Such "deemed infringing acts" include:

Knowingly conducting commercial activities such as operating websites, or social media notice boards and chat rooms to provide connection to pirated contents;
Knowingly posting information to connect to pirated contents on the above websites, or social media notice boards and chat rooms

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency are granted greater authority to block access to pirated content (introducing emergency blocking system)

The Proposed Amendment further clarifies that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism ("MCST") and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency ("KCOPA") have the authority to block access to pirated content. The Proposed Amendment also simplifies the procedures for preventing the distribution of pirated content, including the measures described below:

Ordering/advising online service providers to block access (Article 133-2(1)3 and Article 133-3(1)4)

If control cannot be achieved through existing measures (warnings, deletions, etc.), the MCST and KCOPA may order and advise, respectively, online service providers to block access to pirated content following a review by the Copyright Protection Deliberation Committee ("Committee").
Issuance of emergency blocking orders to online service providers (Article 133-4)

The MCST may also order an online service provider to block access to pirated content even before the Committee's review ("emergency block"). However, such emergency block may only be implemented upon satisfaction of the following requirements:

Established fact of transmitting pirated content through information and communications networks
Clear infringement of rights
Urgent necessity to prevent irrecoverable damages
Acknowledgement that no measures other than access blocking are available

An online service provider who fails to implement the order will be subject to a fine not exceeding KRW 10 million.

Upon ordering an emergency block, the Minister of the MCST must immediately notify the Committee of the order, which then must review and decide within five days whether to maintain it. The alleged publisher or manager of the pirated content subject to the emergency block may file an objection within five days of the blocking order, in which case, the MCST must immediately remove the emergency block.

Civil and criminal sanctions are enhanced

In addition to the introduction of the above provisions, the Proposed Amendment enhances the civil and criminal sanctions for infringement.

Introduction of punitive damages (Article 125(4) and (5))

The Proposed Amendment introduces a punitive damages system so that courts may determine a compensation amount of up to five times the acknowledged amount of damages.

In determining the punitive damages amount, the following factors are to be considered: (i) the degree of awareness of intent or the risk of damage; (ii) the size of damages suffered by the copyright holder; (iii) economic profit gained by the infringement due to the infringing act; (iv) the type and severity of criminal punishment imposed on the infringer due to the infringing act; (v) the period and frequency of the infringing act; (vi) the infringer's financial standing; and (vii) measures taken by the infringer after committing the infringing act.
Increased statutory penalties (Article 136(1))

The statutory penalties for infringement of property rights (including property right of copyright) will be increased from "imprisonment not exceeding five years or a fine not exceeding KRW 50 million" to "imprisonment not exceeding seven years or a fine not exceeding KRW 100 million."

Legislative Next Steps and Implications

The Proposed Amendment was reviewed by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on December 10, 2025, and will be submitted to the National Assembly's plenary session soon. According to the Proposed Amendment, the date of enforcement will be six months after promulgation, and the provisions on access blocking and emergency blocks will be applicable three months after promulgation. The punitive damages provisions will be applicable at the time of infringement after the enforcement date.

Under the Proposed Amendment, sharing links online for commercial purposes will be deemed an infringement of rights, and thus following the Proposed Amendment, online service providers will need to carefully manage legal risk, particularly as the level of sanctions on copyright infringement will be heightened through the punitive damages system and the upward adjustment of statutory punishment. Companies are advised to closely follow legislative developments and inspect their monitoring systems ahead of promulgation to prevent any sharing of illegal links in their services, and appropriately update their terms of use and operation policies.

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