The judge added that if the nature of the insults and the situational context lead to the singling out of a subject, then the subject could be considered a victim of the insults. (image: CCE INFO/flickr)
SEOUL, March 25 (Korea Bizwire) — A Korean regional court has reached an interesting verdict in an online insult case.
Incheon District Court judge Kim Sung-jin said on March 24 that a university student on a leave of absence has been fined 2 million won (US$ 1,800) on charges of insulting the ID, not the actual name, of a gamer during an online game. The university student was indicted for insulting the gamer using swear words several times last year.
The university student claimed during the trial that insulting an online ID cannot be considered a crime of defamation, since IDs do not specify a person’s name. The student also added that s/he had no knowledge about the identity of the insulted gamer.
However, Judge Kim concluded that specifying someone’s first or last name was not a precondition for defamation to occur. The judge added that if the nature of the insults and the situational context lead to the singling out of a subject, then the subject could be considered a victim of the insults.
By M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
