Seoul High Court Decision 2010Na35260, October 13, 2010

(1) In February 2009, Woo Jong-Hyun (surname Woo) recorded his 5-year old daughter casually singing part of the popular singer Sondambi’s major hit I am Crazy unaccompanied and imitating the singer’s gestures and posted the video clip on his blog opened at the country’s major portal Naver, operated by NHN. June of that year, the Korean Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) issued about 16,000 takedown notices to Naver, including the one on Woo’s video clip. Naver immediately took down the video clip and rejected Woo’s restoration notice and the video clip has been down ever since.

(2) Woo filed suit against KOMCA and NHN for damages under Article 103(6) of the Copyright Act: (6)  Any person who demands, without legitimate authority, the suspension or resumption of the reproduction or transmission of relevant works, etc. under paragraphs (1) and (3), shall make a compensation for any losses incurred thereby.

(3) Korean high court affirmed a lower court ruling that the 53 seconds long video clip constitutes a fair use, and ordered KOMCA to pay the plaintiff damages for unjustly requesting a takedown under the notice-and-takedown system. The judgment was not appealed and have now become final.