그록스터(GROKSTER)判決에 나타난 誘導侵害理論의 示唆點

The series of conflicts between copyright owners and technology developers over the P2P network is often referred to as a war these days. The U.S. Supreme Court's Grokster decision in 2005 has opened a new stage for fights between both sides. On the one hand, Grokster decision, by its newly introduced theory of inducement, equipped the copyright owners with a useful weapon to fight against infringers. On the other hand, Grokster decision cannot be said to be a complete victory of copyright owners. Of course, copyright owners will continue to file lawsuits against P2P network developers based upon either the traditional indirect liability theory or the newly adopted inducement theory. The lower courts will have to derive workable standards from Grokster decision. P2P technology developers, however, will eventually find alternatives to avoid infringement claims sooner or later, although it will entail inefficiencies and have the developers incur redundant expenses. Grokster decision, and its inducement theory, is a two-edged sword in that sense. Grokster decision has many implications to how Korean technology developers and copyright owners will adapt to the new digital environment, since this country cannot be exempt from the digital copyright warfare. The elements which Grokster decision had rigorously reviewed may give us hints to establish reasonable standards for the benefit of both groups. The battle over Soribada's file sharing service is a good example of digital copyright disputes in Korea. Recently, copyright owners have claimed that a positive filtering system needs to substitute Soribada's current negative filtering system. In the view of Grokster, the lack of content filtering system, or not adopting stronger positive filtering system, may show the intent of the P2P developers to induce copyright infringements. However, the defects of the filtering technology, high cost to develop one, and technical manipulations to avoid filtering may significantly weaken the effectiveness and reasonableness of such a standard.