이 누리집은 대한민국 공식 전자정부 누리집입니다.
한국저작권보호원
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[C STORY VOL.43 / Case review in stories] What if you sold a game item that imitated an anime character?
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What if you sold a game item that imitated an anime character? Written by. Park Hyun-ju, attorney, Deliberation Department, Korea Copyright Protection Agency In the "Elf Country" game, which Ms. Kim usually enjoys, users can use items to adorn their game (player) character in a variety of ways. items for Elf Country can be purchased in-game although items created separately by a third party for the format of the game can also be used in the game. Ms. Kim wanted to adorn a game character in the image of her favorite anime "Naruto" character. While surfing the internet, she came upon a blog that sells items that allow her to adorn a game character to look like the favorite anime character she desires. The blog operator imitated hundreds of anime characters, including Naruto, "Doraemon", and "Detective Conan”, turned them into game character decoration items, and then sold them. The blog operator was selling character items for a price via 1:1 conversations on KakaoTalk and sending the items to game users through the Elf Country in-game gifting function. Ms. Kim paid KRW 5,000 to the blog operator to purchase a cosmetic item that could be customized to look like Naruto. Ms. Kim’s game character of Elf Country currently resembles Naruto although it is expressed as a cute figure with two heads to match the game character sizes. It is commonly stated that copyright protects expression rather than ideas. But what about characters such as Mickey Mouse? Let's say someone drew a duplicate of Mickey Mouse. Can you claim that depicting and selling Mickey Mouse in a novel stance that has never been represented in any other work infringes the original copyright holder’s copyright? In the case of a character, if the author’s creative personality is revealed in the visual representation of the appearance and movement of the person, animal, etc., it is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law, separate from the original work (Supreme Court Feb. 11, 2010. Decided. 2007DA63409). In other words, Ms. Kim's favorite anime character, Naruto, is also a copyrighted character, distinct from the original. Ms. Kim enjoys playing the game Elf Country, which features adorable two-headed characters. That's why the anime Naruto character items Ms. Kim purchased were likewise redrawn in the shape of a cute two-headed body. This is a form of copying or modification in which the blog owner imitates an existing anime character and makes it appear to be moving around in the game. If the above case is legally interpreted, it can be stated that (1) the seller of the game item in this case copied the original work while creating his or her own work, and (2) created a secondary work by maintaining substantial similarity to the original work and making only modifications that could become a new work according to social norms. Whatever the case may be, the above acts will be regarded an infringement of the copyright holder's right to reproduce or create secondary works unless otherwise permitted. In this case, the blog owner stopped selling items related to the character when he or she received questions about copyright from the characters’ original copyright holders. If a user has been purchasing in-game items from this blog for a long time, he or she may already be aware that the character items sold there infringe copyrights. Regarding similar cases to the ones stated above, the Copyright Protection Deliberation Committee recently decided to issue a correction notice of warning to blog operators (those who copy and transmit) in light of the fact that although the postings under consideration are unauthorized copies of other people's character works incorporated into their own works, the impact on the relevant market was unclear from the explanatory materials alone, and it appeared appropriate for those blog operators to notify the publishers of copyright infringement and instruct them to remove the infringing elements in a proper manner rather than immediately prohibiting the production and sale of skins. ※ In accordance with Article 133(3) of the Copyright Act, the Korea Copyright Protection Agency recommends that online service providers take corrective measures to delete or suspend the transmission of illegal copies that infringe copyrights, etc., and to warn the person who posted them, to prevent copyright disputes in advance by notifying Internet users who are not familiar with the Copyright Act about whether they have violated the Copyright Act after a review by the Copyright Protection Deliberation Committee. |
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| 이전글 | [C STORY VOL.44 / International Copyright Issues] "We will make additional efforts to protect copyrights to lead the development of the cultural industry" |
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| 다음글 | [C STORY VOL.43 / International Copyright Issues] "Strong international ties are essential for combating piracy" |
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