책 표지 디자인 카피캣에 대한 입법적 제언 -저작권법과 부정경쟁방지법을 중심으로-

In the contemporary publishing industry, the so-callde ‘copycat’ strategy is in vogue. Just as a kitten mimics its mother cat’s hunting tecniques, newly released books imitate the ‘best-sellers’ that have previously made waves. This imitation strategy has been acclaimed as one of th market survival tactics, similar to the benchmarking of aggressive startups. However, observing the current publishing industry, it seems that the kitten is now devouring the mother cat. It is lamentable that the publishing culture Arthur Schopenhauer worried about two centuries ago still prevails today. Therefore, these publishing practies must be discontinued, and responding to ethcal demands has become important for both consumers and designers. Despite having a sense ot the issue, consumers do not consider these tendencies when purchasing books. Moreover, designers are also caught up in industrial logic, failing to practice ethical design. Hence, rather than expecting them to respond to ethical demands, it would be better to first derive legislative improvements to subsquently enhance empirical ethical consciousness. Consequently, this paper aims to identify the current situation where book titles and cover designs are indiscriminately copied without legal resolution, review the stance of our Surpreme Court, and determine that legislative reflection of the times is necessary rather than a sift in interpretative direction. Accordingly, by examing the current ‘Copyright law’ and ‘Unfair Competition Prevention Law’ related to book cover designs, the paper seeks to identify issues and propose legislative improvements based on these findings.