저작권법상 공표된 저작물의 인용에 관한 고찰 - e스포츠 방송과 게임저작물의 이용사례를 중심으로 -

Blizzard Entertainment (hereafter ‘Blizzard’), a developer of ‘Starcraft’- the major game of recent Korean e-sport claimed the copyright including a sponsor profit distribution against Korean E-sport Association, On-Game Net and MBC game. In this respect, the following issues have been discussed ① whether or not Blizzard has right to claim its copyright against the e-sport broadcast ② it so, what is the scope of the exclusive rights. As ‘Starcraft’ game is the subject matter of e-sport broadcast delivered by On-Game Net etc, specific images of ‘Starcraft’ game are continuously displayed on the full screen while broadcasting e-sport. It is, therefore, provided that Blizzard having a valid copyright in ‘Starcraft’ and no ‘particular facts’, the act of e-sport broadcast amounts to be the infringement of the reproduction right and broadcasting right (transmission right,) of copyrighted work of ‘Starcraft’ owned by Blizzard. Further, the e-sport broadcast could be considered as the derivative works based upon the copyrighted work of ‘Starcraft’ game. If so, the e-sport broadcast shall be deemed as the infringement of the right to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted ‘Starcraft’ of Blizzard. In this respect, it is deemed that the conclusion of the current case of e-sport broadcast is based upon the presence of ‘particular facts’ which limit the copyright of ‘Starcraft’. In other words, the ‘particular facts’ mean the limitation on the exclusive rights in copyrighted work prescribed by the Copyright Act. The current case explores the importance of interpretation of limitation on intellectual property rights in addition to fair use of work of visual art. It is, thus, the current paper examines the interpretation of regulations related to intellectual property and the relevant cases in order to decide whether or not to apply the limitation on the exclusive rights of intellectual property right of ‘Starcraft’ in relation to e-sport broadcast.