Recently, information communication network such as Internet is the
most important place in which crimes appear in number and level
compared with crimes in real world. On-line Service Providers(OSP) are
regarded as having a substantial role to control and regulate the illegal
behavior infringing of Copyright, so they should be liable to civil or
criminal.
In Soribada and Web-hard cases, the courts agreed the criminal
responsibility of On-line Service Providers as assistance or aid. This
means OSP's liablity is not regarded as principal offender in criminal. But
they don't accept the opinion of applying exclusionary clause of Copyright
Act. They want OSP to fulfill the highest level of technical filtering
measures. Passive filtering measures cannot be the method of exemption
from responsibility.
But above decisions do not show the discrimination between civil cases
and criminal cases. Especially thinking about criminal responsibility of
OSP, it is very important to consider the principle of the legality of crimes
and punishment. The strengthening the liability of OSP may bring about
the chilling effect of freedom of speech and the use of Internet, and lead
the conclusion of disregard of development of information technology and
industry. Though OSPs have a duty of care to remove and manage the
illegal contents on their service boards, the level of duty to care is
restricted when they know the contents are obviously illegal and violate
the copyright act. And the ability of OSP to control the contents according
to technical or economical conditions also should be considered.