The Korea Copyright Commission (KCC)

The Korea Copyright Commission (“KCC”) is the national agency dedicated to copyright-related affairs. It plays a pivotal role in promotion of the legitimate use of works, and development of the copyright industry.

 

The KCC covers its roles ranging from deliberating copyright-related issues, mediating copyright disputes, researching policies and legislations on copyright, providing copyright education and public awareness programs, to serving as a copyright registration agency.

 

Authors may register their copyrighted works in the Copyright Commission. Further, the Copyright Commission provides ADR solutions regarding copyright disputes in Korea. The Copyright Commission employs conciliation for a settlement of copyright disputes. The Copyright Dispute Conciliation system is meant to efficiently resolve problems through the Copyright Commission established under the Copyright Act, with respect to disputes over rights protected by the Act. One can apply for conciliation for a small fee and the Commission shall reach conciliation within three months from the date of the application.

 

Confidentiality is assured in conciliation. Conciliation has binding effect to both parties as a judicial settlement. Under the Supreme Court Regulation, when a party does not follows the contents of the settlement, the counter party may enforce his rights through direct execution based the conciliation without bringing a separate lawsuit.

 

When any one creates a computer program, he can deposit a copy of a source code or object code of the program to register his program in the Committee. The deposit and registration will serve to clarify the priority to the later developers and the contents of the work. Further, the Committee provides ADR solutions in legal disputes regarding computer programs through mediation and conciliation. A mediation and conciliation board is consists of a panel 3 computer program specialists from legal, academic and industrial area. When both parties accept mediation, the mediation is binding and has identical effect to the judgment of a court.