July 10, 2017
Introduced by a Member of the National Assembly (MoNA), Ms. Jung-Jae Kim co-sponsored by
nine members (Bill No. 2007883).
September 19, 2017
Presented to the relevant standing committee (Culture,
Sports & Tourism Committee) and referred to its law review sub-committee.
September 25, 2017
Presented to the law review sub-committee.
November 21, 2017
At the sub-committee debate, a committee staff director and vice-minister of the
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (wrongly) maintained that the proposed blocking
measures could be ordered in two weeks, effectively shortening two months for the current
ordering period. The shortening, according to them, was possible because the order can be
made by deliberation of copyright protection agency and bypassing the existing procedures
within the communication authorities. Further, the vice-minister (again wrongly) replied to
the committee members that the communication authorities possessing a power to order the
blocking measures did not express objections to the proposed bill. Relying on this false
reply, the members of the sub-committee endorsed the proposal to shift the blocking power
from the communication authorities to the copyright protection agency. The sub-committee
decided to combine the bill with other three bills (these bills also contain highly
controversial proposals), making a single committee’s bill.
December 1, 2017
General meeting of the Culture, Sports & Tourism Committee which adopted the committee’s
bill.
September 20, 2018
Presented to the
Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the final gate before the plenary session of
the National Assembly. Curiously, the official meeting record said that the committee’s bill
was decided to pass as it was. This record is wrong because the bill was referred to the 2nd
sub-committee of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and is still pending as shown
below.
November 11, 2018
At the 2nd sub-committee of Legislation and Judiciary Committee, objections of the
communication authorities (specifically, Korea
Communication Standard Commission) were delivered to the
members. The objections were based on the concerns that blocking measure may prohibit
access to non-illegal material and bring about a conflict with the right to freedom of
expression. Most of the committee members agreed the necessity of stronger copyright
protection but questioned the legitimacy of the blocking power being transferred from the
communication authorities to the copyright authorities. So the 2nd sub-committee decided to
continue the discussion and asked intergovernmental consultation to address different
stances on the bill.
November 20, 2019
The 2nd sub-committee of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee reached a conclusion to entirely delete provisions granting copyright authorities a power to block internet connection to allegedly copyright infringing foreign sites. Mr. Kim Jung-Jae who proposed the provisions agreed the deletion.
November 27, 2019
The Legislation and Judiciary Committee voted to remove the internet censoring provision from the Copyright Act Amendment Bill.
November 28, 2019
The Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, which has a jurisdiction on the Copyright Act, proposed a revised bill in which the internet censoring provisions are entirely removed.
