Supreme Court: Revised Edition of Japanese Novel Translation 'Daemang' Does Not Violate Copyright Law

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has delivered a verdict of not guilty regarding the CEO of a publishing company who was fined for unauthorized translation and sale of the Japanese novel "Tokugawa Ieyasu (?川家康)," known domestically as "Daemang."

On the 21st, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Park Sang-ok) announced that it overturned the lower court's ruling, which had imposed a fine on Mr. A, CEO of Dongseo Munhwa Dongpan, who was indicted for copyright infringement, and remanded the case to the Seoul Central District Court.

Dongseo Munhwasa (currently Dongseo Munhwa Dongpan) published and sold "Daemang," a translation of the Japanese novel "Tokugawa Ieyasu," starting in April 1975. However, following the amendment of domestic copyright law in accordance with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, obtaining the original author's consent became mandatory for domestic translation and publication.

Sol Publishing signed an official contract with the original Japanese publisher of "Tokugawa Ieyasu" in 1999 and published the first volume of the translated novel in December 2000. Subsequently, Mr. A republished a partially revised version of the 1975 edition of "Daemang" in 2005, which Sol Publishing contested. Sol Publishing filed a complaint with the prosecution, claiming that Dongseo Munhwasa published the book without permission.

The first trial court found Mr. A guilty of violating copyright law, sentencing him to eight months in prison with one year of probation, and fined the publishing company 10 million won. The court judged that "considering the extent of revisions and differences in expression between the 1975 and 2005 editions, they cannot be regarded as the same work."

The appellate court also rejected Mr. A's claims but acknowledged that both Mr. A and his publishing company suffered unforeseen damages due to the copyright law amendment, reducing their fines to 7 million won each.

However, the Supreme Court's judgment differed. The court explained, "The 2005 edition of Daemang contains numerous revisions of personal names, place names, and Chinese character pronunciations according to the revised foreign language notation system and Korean orthography, reflecting modern expressions. However, these changes are unlikely to affect the identity or similarity between the two works." It added, "Although the 2005 edition utilized the 1975 edition within a similar scope, it is difficult to conclude that it reached the level of a new work under social norms," and thus remanded the case.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.