A few days ago, Seoul Central Court ruled in favor of Starbucks Korea in a copyright lawsuit filed by the Korea Music Copyright Association alleging the Starbucks Korea should pay royalties in playing copyrighted music in its outlets. I wrote some posts regarding this issue here and here. The legal issue was whether playing copyrighted music substitutes a mail business of Starbucks Korea. That is because current Korean Copyright Act does not have a explicit clause on whether cafes such as Starbucks Korea is free to play copyrighted music(check this post on relevant clauses). The court ruled in favor of Starbucks Korea saying “playing a copyright music is not a main business of Starbucks Korea. The fact that playing copyrighted music has some good effects on its product selling is not sufficient to prove playing music is a main business of Starbucks Korea”.
© 2009 Wonil Chung, a Korean entertainment lawyer / Chung & Partners, a Korean Business Law Firm. All rights reserved. Some copyrights, photos, icons, trademarks, trade dress, or other commercial symbols that appear on this post are the property of the respective owners.
