저작권 보호기간 연장에 관한 검토

A Study on the Extension of the Term of Copyright Protection

On July 2, 2007, the final agreement and annex for Free Trade Agreement between South Korea and the USA was made public. According to the 4th clause in the article 18.4 of the agreement, in principle, the term of copyright protection, which lasts 50 years after the death of the author in the existing law, must be extended to 20 more years, and the amended copyright law regarding this should start being executed in 2 years from the effectuation date. This article is to examine the plans to legalize above. Despite no mentioning in the agreement, it is very important to decide which era group of works will apply this extended protection period. According to the incentive theory, the term of copyright protection is the secured duration for exclusive profit in the market with the concerned work, and it should motivate the potential authors to create new works. In conclusion, this paper suggest to apply the protection term to the FTA level only to the works which are announced or published after the commencing date of the amended law. South Korean Government mentioned that the agreement was the voluntary selection for the advancement of system. If they apply this extended duration retroactively on all works which still retain the existing protection period in the USA, however, there will be a controversy on the actual intention of the FTA agreement and the government will not be able to escape the criticism for its humiliating diplomacy.