전자출판의 법적 의미와 그 한계

Electronic books and e-book readers like Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad are changing the book publishing industry. An e-book is an electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a personal computer or hand-held device like e-book reader. The category of electronic publishing includes e-books in CD-ROM formats as well as downloadable text or hand-held devices. With the advent of e-books and electronic publishing, careful management and fair adjustment of copyrights are needed. Under the Korean Copyright Act, when an author wants to have a publisher to publish his/her work,he/she has a choice of either granting the publisher an exclusive or non-exclusive license to publish it, or granting the publisher to establish a right of publication. Unlike an exclusive or non-exclusive license, a right of publication enjoys the exclusivity against third parties. There are many variations on the scope of the rights granted to the publisher by the author. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between the publisher’s right of publication and electronic publishing right. To determine whether the electronic publishing right might be construed as establishing a right of publication, we must first clarify the legal meaning and limitation of a right of publication. And for resolving the legal issues concerning electronic publishing, it should be necessary for us to consider proposals for reforming the Act in relating to expansion of the range of a right of publication, adoption of exclusive license system with the exclusivity against third parties, et cetera.