Korean police don’t care about porn stars

You may have heard the news about how American and Japanese porn produces are trying to sue Koreans who download porn, and then charge other people money to watch it.
Well, the Korean police don’t care. To be fair, though, they do have their reasons, which you can believe or doubt at your own discretion.

The officer said the video footage involved in the cases is not subject to protection from domestic law because it is neither academic nor artistic work.

Since pornography that depicts pubic hair or actual, as opposed to simulated, sexual intercourse, is illegal in Korea, I guess the police’s proper action would be to prosecute these people for breaking Korean laws. Let’s say that Harry Potter books are illegal in Country X, and that people in Country X start photocopying Harry Potter books and selling them for a profit. J.K. Rowling tries to sue those people for intellectual property piracy. Those people should be prosecuted for having Harry Potter books, because they are illegal in Country X, whether they are photocopied or bought from legitimate bookstores in other countries.

E.via’s “오빠! 나 해도돼?” (“Can I do it?”) has been banned. What a surprise

Recently, a new artist named E.via made her debut. (The Grand Narrative briefly wrote about her in this post.) One of the songs on her album, “오빠! 나 해도돼?” (“Can I do it?”)* has been banned. If you’ve ever heard the song, it’s easy to figure out why. Incidentally, the links over at Grand Narrative’s post are now broken. “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.” Or maybe someone was embarrassed and demanded its removal. But thanks to All K Pop, we have a new link.

Korean artists having their songs banned is nothing new or unusual. It’s happened to many, including Rain and DBSK, among others. What’s unusual here is that it isn’t just “오빠! 나 해도돼?” but all of her songs that have been banned.

Incidentally, she isn’t another clone coming out of the factories of JYP Entertainment, Good, SM, YG, and Daesung. She’s been working the clubs for years (see here, here, and here). And she can really rap.

* Interestingly, Korean and English, which are radically different languages, both use the verb “do” as a euphemism for … you know …

Oh noes! Naked News Korea may be “harmful to teenagers”

Normally, when I see a headline like “Topless News Channel Under Official Scrutiny,” off-color jokes begin to coalesce in my mind. But … oh no! …

The Korea Communications Standards Commission is monitoring Naked News, a topless channel launched here on May 23, it said Monday.

[ snip ]

The commission has asked experts to review whether the service is harmful to teenagers and plans to take strict punitive measures if it disobeys relevant regulations.

Leave Naked News alone! Just leave it alone!

Even the Blue House are posing as foreigners at YouTube

Recently, YouTube rejected Korea’s real-name system, but nevertheless, there has been speculation that people in Korea would pretend to be foreigners at YouTube. This is because Koreans still cannot upload videos or post comments unless they give personal information such as their real name. Surely, only scalawags would do such a thing, right? It turns out that the Blue House (home of the South Korean president, similar to America’s White House) have been uploading videos to YouTube, and pretending to be foreigners while doing so.
(source)

Newspaper executive sues lawmakers over actress’ Jang Ja-yeon’s list

Last month actress Jang Ja-yeon committed suicide. A note, said to be written by her, said that she was forced to have sex with some of the biggest executives in the Korean media (broadcasting companies and newspapers). When she tried to refuse, she was beaten. Though one copy of the letter was burnt, another copy was leaked to the press (no one knows which one was the original) and has made its way onto the Internet.

First, some background on Korea’s libel laws. As Brendon Carr explained, in Korea, one person’s right to protect their reputation trumps another person’s right to free speech. Further, telling the truth is no guaranteed defense. Even if you print verifiable facts that are a matter of public record, you can still be sued for libel.

Two lawmakers implicated the senior executive of the Chosun Ilbo newspaper in the actress’ death, and now he is suing the lawmakers for “damaging his reputation.”

In my opinion, if you don’t want your reputation to be damaged, don’t commit crimes. When you commit crimes, you lose your right to protect your reputation. Just my opinion.

Edit/Update:

It turns out that at least one of the lawmakers, Lee Jeong-hee (also spelled Lee Jung-hee), is a woman, which could help to explain why she wanted to give this pig the humiliation that he richly deserves.

Google compromises on Internet free speech in S. Korea

(from the Hankyoreh newspaper)

Google Korea submits to government’s trend towards curbing Internet freedoms by implementing a “real name system”

Google, the world’s largest Internet company, has finally submitted to South Korea’s unprecedented Internet regulations, including agreeing to implement a “real name” system in which any South Korean can post their contents only after they confirm their resident registration number.

　　　The company plans to reorganize its site beginning April 1 so that subscribers in South Korea must confirm their real names before posting materials or replies on YouTube Korea. Concurrently April 1 is when the amendment to South Korea’s Act on the Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and User Protection will go into effect. It expands the scope of sites subject to the real name registration system to those that have at least 100,000 users per day.

[ snip ]

The head offices of Google have explored various means of bypassing the “real-name registration system,” arguing that freedom of expression should be experienced globally by all users, including proposing to shut down YouTube services in South Korea but to no avail. A representative of Google Korea says that South Korea “is the first country worldwide for which Google will be collecting real-name information that can be used to identify individuals.”

First Minerva, now this. Free speech isn’t absolute, but the Lee Myung-bak administration seems to be a little unclear on the concept of “democracy.”

“Minerva” Denied Bail

The blogger known as “Minerva” has been denied bail. The Korea Times writes:

A Court has refused to grant bail to arrested Internet commentator Park Dae-sung, better known as “Minerva,” citing the possibility that he could flee.

And so what if he did? What would he do? Write another blog entry? Oh no! We’re not talking about a rapist or a bank robber. Decisions like this are going to alienate what supporters the Lee Myung-bak administration has left.