The Real Cost Of Copyright Extension In Korea: $170 Million
from the ouch dept
Earlier this year, we pointed out how ridiculous it was that the US was forcing South Korea to extend the length of copyright in the name of free trade agreements. After all, copyright is the opposite of free trade -- it's about monopoly protectionism, and that's very costly. Now we actually have an idea of just how costly. William Patry writes about the history of copyright extension, highlighting how it's really just a game of leapfrog, where Big Copyright holders use the differences in copyright law to continually extend it out further and further -- completely going against the purpose of copyright law. However, the real key to Patry's writeup is to point to a report from South Korea talking about just how much damage copyright extension is doing to local publishers. That's quite a statement, since copyright extension supporters always talk about how it's designed to help publishers. Not so. Publishers are complaining that the new rules will limit how many books they can publish, and the government is being forced to hand over approximately $170 million to keep the publishers happy. So, for all the talk of how copyright extension is necessary to protect the publishing industry, in South Korea, it seems to be costing taxpayers at least $170 million -- while making sure that fewer books are published. How is that possibly aligned with the stated purpose of copyright to encourage more content creation?
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Billion by db0 on Dec 20th, 2007 @ 5:52am
I've just checked the article and it mentions 160 Billion, not 170 million.
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Re: Billion by Evil Mike on Dec 20th, 2007 @ 6:27am
160 Billion Won ~= 170 million US $
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Re: Billion by Jason Still on Dec 20th, 2007 @ 6:30am
The article said 160 billion won
1 South Korean won = 0.001065 U.S. dollars
so that comes out to about $170,400,000 USD
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Re: Billion by Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) on Dec 20th, 2007 @ 6:33am
That is 160 billion won (the currency of South Korea).
Exchange Rate
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Re: Billion by MadJo on Dec 20th, 2007 @ 6:35am
Yes, 160 Billion South Korean won:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=160+billion+won+in+dollar
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Re: Billion by Anonymous Coward on Dec 20th, 2007 @ 7:36am
What the 3 guys above said.....
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Billion by Deserving Name on Dec 20th, 2007 @ 8:00am
(quietly but arrogantly sticks pinky into mouth and chuckles as he mutters)
1 Billion Won
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Re: Re: Billion by db0 on Dec 20th, 2007 @ 8:01am
Oh, sorry. My bad.
Back to lurking I guess :)
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Feh!! by zcat on Dec 20th, 2007 @ 1:09pm
By all means, keep quoting the cost at "160 BILLION" without mentioning the currency.. ;-) it's certainly no worse than what the MAFIAA do when they quote 'loss to piracy' by pulling large numbers from various orifices.
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KORUS FTA by yamanin on Dec 23rd, 2007 @ 11:51pm
I live in South Korea, and most of the coverage of the FTA and the protests against it have focused on things like importation of American beef and rice (which would actually be a good thing for the majority of the population as it would lower food prices) or the screen quota that protects the Korean film industry (which no longer needs it now that they've started producing quality films instead of the low-budget crap that was churned out by the bucketful in the 70s and 80s.) I personally would find the idea of forcing Koreans to accept the US copyright "standard" that was put in place to ensure a work-free living for Sono Bono's grandchildren (though not with Cher, since Chastity is a lesbian) far more disturbing than reducing the price of bulgogi at my local restaraunt. I'll see if I can't get a protest organized; not hard to do around here.
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