Edutech Freewill Found 'Not Guilty' of Copyright Infringement Alleged by Publisher
Copyright Infringement Accusation... No Charges Filed
'Unfair Competition Prevention Act Violation' Also No Charges
Freewill "Recognized as Original Work"
Freewillin's math problem bank solution service 'MathPlat' has been cleared of copyright infringement charges.
Edutech startup Freewillin announced on the 22nd that it received a dismissal without indictment regarding allegations of 'copyright law violation' and 'unfair competition prevention law violation' related to the MathPlat service. Publishers Gaenyeomwonli and Jihaksa filed a police complaint against Freewillin last November on these two charges.
Launched in 2017, MathPlat is a problem bank service that helps students manage their learning. After users study with commercial textbooks, they use MathPlat for automatic grading, and MathPlat provides problems identical or similar in type to the incorrect problems from its own problem bank database (DB).
The publishers claimed that MathPlat's wrong answer management feature violated copyright, arguing that problems from commercial textbooks were copied and provided as is. However, the investigative authorities judged that all problems provided by MathPlat were either independently created original works by Freewillin or borrowed from general mathematical concepts, and thus could not be seen as infringing the exclusive copyrights of specific publishers.
Regarding the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, the authorities also determined that the service could not be considered contrary to fair trade competition order. Furthermore, since the complainants' textbooks were not in competition with the service, it was not recognized as infringing on the complainants' economic interests.
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Kwon Ki-seong, CEO of Freewillin, said, "From the early stages of our business, we have operated the service legally after thorough reviews of our business model by multiple law firms," adding, "With this decision, we have firmly established our legality, reducing judicial risks and accelerating all projects that expand the base through technology."
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