Open Net and Harvard’s Berkman Center Host International Seminar on Intermediary Liability (May 28)

Open Net – Harvard Berkman Center Seminar on Intermediary Liability
– Designing Intermediary Liability Regime for Promotion of User Rights and ICT Industry

On May 28, Open Net, together with Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, is hosting an international seminar on intermediary liability at the National Assembly Members’ Hall in Seoul, Korea. The seminar is domestically co-hosted by three National Assembly Members YOO Seung-hee, PARK Joo Sun, YEOM Dong Yeol, and the National Assembly Research Service (NARS), the Korea Society for Media Law, Ethics and Policy Research, the Korea Internet Law Association, Korea University (KU) Law School Research Institute, and Seoul National University (SNU) Center for Law and Technology.

The holy grail of intermediary liability discourse has been how to protect the empowering feature of the Internet:  an individual’s ability to speak to and share information with the whole world without anyone’s approval, while combating “unlawful” information: the information in itself causing harm or aiding or abetting commission of crimes.  The complexity of Internet intermediaries has grown from ISPs and broadbands to now include search engines, SNS, app platforms, and mobile telcos, making the quest for the holy grail even more difficult.

The U.S. and the EU focused on creating safe harbors for the intermediaries who were given immunity as incentives for diligently going through well-defined procedures designed to abate unlawful content. The challenge is whether such common regulatory theme can be replicated in other parts of the world.  In Korea where the widespread perception that the Internet has been aiding and abetting online “injuries” and “crimes” has resulted in the infamous Internet real name law, and intermediaries are required to take contents down upon requests from any alleged victim or various administrative bodies and to monitor for “illegal information” such as copyright infringement, obscenity or child pornography at the penalty of a fine or criminal liability.

At the seminar, international authorities on intermediary liability will come together to update and discuss with politicians, scholars, academia, industry in Korea about the status of the relevant international discourse.

※ Please click the program for registration.