Photography

What kind of photograph (저작권보호대상 사진) can be protected as a copyrighted work?

Under the Copyright Act (wholly amended by Act No. 8101 of December 28, 2006), photography works can be protected as copyrighted works based on a certain criteria. According to the Supreme Court Decision 2008Da44542 decided on December 23, 2010, the work to be protected by the law must be a creative production belonging to the areas of literature, science, or art.

Therefore, in the case of a work of photography, the photographer's individuality and creativity must be evident through such elements as determination of the subject and composition, control of light direction and amount, determination of camera angle, shutter speed, seizing of shutter chance, or through the method of shooting, process of development and printing, etc.

Key words
copyright, photography, free access, trade secret, online service provider (OSP)

Scope of Protection for Copyrights
The Supreme Court ruled,. “The former Copyright Act protects creative expression forms that specifically express literary, scientific, or artistic thoughts or emotions using words, characters, musical notes, or colors, etc."

The content being expressed, i.e., the thought or emotion - such as an idea or theory - is not subject to protection as a work under the former Copyright Act. In particular, works belonging to the category of science must be of an academic nature universal for all people and allow free access by anyone, with copyright protection extended to its creative expression form, not its academic content.

Trade Secrets
In this case, the Court also explained the term of "trade secrets".

The term "trade secret," which is defined in Article 2(2) of the former Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act (amended by Act No.8767 of December 21, 2007), means any technical or operational information useful for any production and sale methods and other business activities, which has been maintained in secret by considerable effort. Here, the phrase" has been maintained in secret by considerable effort" means a recognizable state where in formation has been objectively maintained and managed in secret, including cases where: there are some indications or notifications regarding that the information is classified as secret; the persons able to use the information or access it are limited; or the persons who have access to the information are required to maintain its secrecy.