대리게임금지법에 관한 비판적 검토

Abstract

The concept of game boosting is quite a bit unfamiliar in general terms since the playing games on behalf of other seems to be contrary to the natures of entertainment and play. Game boosting is, however, widespread in many online games and seems to cause serious problems at least within the games. There also are many companies take advantage of this to earn profits through the offering game boosting services. This is a phenomenon that is caused by excessive competition to achieve level or performance in the game. As a solution to this problem, the Korean government recently implemented a revision to the Game Industry Promotion Act, called the Anti-Game boosting Act. The key of this act is allow to force maximum two years of imprison on a person who earns profit from the act of acquiring score or performance on behalf of others. However, even if the above actions could disrupt order in the game and infringe upon the interests of the gaming industry entrepreneurs, it is inevitable to concern a fundamental question whether it is a matter of criminal penalty. The users of game product have a freedom to play the game in the way they want. Even if the profits of game products related business entity are limited due to this act, those profits are an de facto profit and hardly to be considered as those deserving legal protection. It is contradictory to intend to establish a culture of fair competition within the game by applying the criminal law while neglecting that many game products related business entity themselves are providing extremely unfair game environments and contents. This article, with a careful look into the alleged problem, will critically analyze the components of the Anti-Game Boosting Act and bring up the improvement measures.