(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The Daejeon District Public Prosecutors Office said Wednesday it had indicted two Chinese individuals in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for illegally sending Korean broadcasting content abroad over the past six years.
Among them, the one who was arrested in South Korea was indicted with detention. The extradition process is underway for his accomplice in China, who remotely managed the transmission equipment.
The arrested individual installed dozens of satellite broadcasting receivers (set-top boxes) and transmission equipment in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.
Starting in 2016, he illegally sent Korean broadcasting content abroad without signing copyright usage contracts with domestic terrestrial broadcasters such as KBS and 28 general programming channels.
This is the first case in which an individual has been arrested for the illegal use of domestic broadcasting content using EVPAD, a device allowing illegal access to pirated content.
“We will intensify our efforts to eradicate online crimes by performing internationally-coordinated investigations, particularly for the behaviors of infringing intellectual property rights by using the borderless characteristics of online crimes.” the ministry said.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
