On March 3, 2009, the National Assembly\’s Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting & Communications (CCSTB&C) passed a bill to revise the Copyright Law. The bill includes the so called, "three strikes out" or "graduated response" provision. The basic structure of the three strikes out provision is the same as that of the bill proposed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) in July, 2008
The provision gives authority to order ISP to send warning letters to the users, delete or stop transmission of illegal reproductions, suspend or terminate the accounts of the users, or close the bulletine boards to the Ministry. It also gives power to order information and telecommunication service providers to block connections to their information and elecommunication network of such ISPs. You can see the unofficial translation of the MCST bill at http://ipleft.or.kr/bbs/view.php?board=ipleft_5&id=488&page=1&category1=3
The Ministry did not introduce its bill to the National Assembly by itself. Instead, Rep. Kang Seung-Kyu , a member of the National Assembly and a member of the government party, introduced a bill based on MCST\’s bill with some changes on November 27,2008.. Some of the measures such as termination of the accounts and close of the bulletin boards were removed, and the suspension period was limited at maximum within a year.
CCSTB&C passed Rep. Kang\’s bill on March 3, 2009. During the deliberation in the Committee, the bill was modified. The passed bill limits the suspension period of the user accounts and the bulletin boards to 6 months at most, and the blocking the ISPs\’ connections to the Internet was totally removed. Originally, the bill was expected to be passed in the general meeting of the National Assembly on the same day when the bill passed in the Standing Committee, March 3, 2009. However, The general meeting was a rough ride and the bill did not passe because the general meeting passed midnight before the bill was brought up for vote. The modified bill will be up for vote in April, and it is most likely that the bill pass in the National Assembly and come into force in April.