방송 포맷의 저작권법에 의한 보호

Abstract

This paper explores the legal issues on the protection of TV formats based on the Copyright Act. Recently, disputes over format transactions and format plagiarism are arising in line with the expansion of the broadcasting market. There have been many discussions on the legal protection of TV formats with focus centering on whether such is possible through copyright law. Foreign court decisions on format-related disputes reveal that courts have tended to deny copyright infringement. This appears to be attributable to the fact that TV formats are traditionally regarded as a compilation of ideas from existing programs in light of the idea-expression dichotomy. However, in some cases, copyright infringement was recognized by foreign courts. When determining creativity, courts based judgment on originality of combination through selection or arrangement of individual components, and when determining substantial similarity, they relied on overall judgment such as total concept and feel. The Supreme Court of Korea has received a great deal of attention following its recent decision on whether TV format can be protected by copyright law. The Court held that, when determining creativity of a reality broadcast program, it must examine the creativity of each individual element constituting the program as well as the creativity in the selection or arrangement of these individual elements. As the format market grows and the need for protection increases, the Supreme Court’s decision, as seen supra, is significant in that the creativity of format was acknowledged under certain requirements.