Court: Unauthorized Graffiti Exposure in 'Nolmwo' Background Constitutes Copyright Infringement

A scene from the MBC entertainment show 'How Do You Play?' featuring the work of artist Sim Chanyang. Photo by MBC Broadcast Screen Capture

The court has ruled that exposing graffiti artwork without the artist's consent on MBC's entertainment program 'Hangout with Yoo' constitutes copyright infringement.

According to the legal community on the 22nd, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 62 (Presiding Judge Lee Young-kwang) partially ruled in favor of graffiti artist Shim Chan-yang in a lawsuit against MBC and PD Kim Tae-ho for copyright infringement, ordering "the defendants to jointly pay the plaintiff 5 million won."

Additionally, MBC was ordered to delete the portions of the footage where Shim's artwork was shown. Otherwise, the broadcast of the relevant episode is prohibited.

The court stated, "MBC and PD Kim transmitted the program to the public with the artwork as a background without confirming the author or obtaining permission to use it, thereby infringing reproduction and public transmission rights," and ruled that "they are liable for damages caused by copyright infringement."

MBC and PD Kim argued that the artwork was incidentally included during the filming of the cast and did not constitute copyright infringement, but the court rejected this, stating, "The importance of the copyrighted work used as the stage background cannot be considered low, and the amount of exposure is not insignificant, so its significance in the program is not minor."

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