음란물의 저작물성

The Copyrightability of Obscene Works

Korean copyright scholars and practitioners were nearly indifferent to the issue on whether obscene works be protected by copyright law until when Japanese and U.S. pornography producers claimed that the copyright of their pornography was infringed in Korea in 2009. From then on there were some debates and arguments on this issue. The majority of commentators and precedents seems to uphold a pro-copyrightability. This paper explores on this issue in the light of the theoretical aspects and policy based aspects. After exploration, this paper also concludes that the obscene works is entitled to copyright protection in spite of its obscene content.