AfricaTV Cannot Arbitrarily Claim Ownership or Delete User-Created Content

Fair Trade Commission Corrects 5 Terms in AfreecaTV's User Agreement

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Going forward, AfreecaTV will no longer be able to claim ownership of all works created by users upon their death. It will be prohibited to delete users' works at the company's discretion without specifying reasons for deletion.

The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 12th that it reviewed AfreecaTV's Terms of Use and AfreecaTV Paid Service Terms of Use and corrected five types of contractual clauses.

The FTC required changes to clauses including ▲ownership of works transferring to the business operator upon user death ▲unfair exemption of the operator's liability ▲arbitrary deletion of works by the operator ▲unfair jurisdiction agreement clauses ▲unfairly short objection periods for users.

The FTC explained that consumer harm is increasing as platform operators unilaterally suspend user accounts or delete works without prior notice.

The domestic one-person media market is expected to grow from 3.87 trillion KRW in 2018 to 8 trillion KRW by 2023.

Correction to Prevent Arbitrary Ownership and Deletion of User Copyrights

Source=Korea Fair Trade Commission

The FTC corrected the clause that stipulated all works of a user would belong to AfreecaTV upon the user's death.

Since rights to works are a type of property right, unless otherwise specifically stipulated, it is reasonable to follow the inheritance regulations under civil law.

It was prohibited to delete users' works without any prior notice at AfreecaTV's discretion, as such actions were deemed arbitrary and did not guarantee users' procedural rights.

The reasons for deleting works must be specified in detail, and a prior notification procedure for users must be established.

"Platform Managers Must Fulfill Obligations Even Without Direct Service Provision"

Source=Korea Fair Trade Commission

The FTC also found the clause exempting AfreecaTV from any liability for damages regardless of its fault to be unfair.

Even if the platform operator does not directly provide services, it must fulfill obligations imposed by relevant laws and exercise due care as the manager of the platform it operates and manages.

Accordingly, the clause was revised so that exemption from liability is only possible when the company is not at fault or there is no intentional or gross negligence. This clarifies that AfreecaTV cannot be exempted from legal responsibilities.

Additionally, the clause that set the jurisdiction based on the operator's address was changed to follow jurisdiction rules under the Civil Procedure Act, and the clause limiting the objection period for prepaid fees to within one month from the paid service usage date was deleted.

The Fair Trade Commission stated that AfreecaTV plans to complete the correction of problematic clauses within this month and apply them to users.

Hwang Yunhwan, head of the FTC's Terms Review Division, said, "Following last year’s corrections of unfair terms by Google (YouTube), Naver, and this year’s TwitchTV, we expect that unfair trade practices across the media platform industry will improve."