[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] The Supreme Court has ruled that even if one unknowingly benefited from using copyrighted material without the copyright holder's permission, the amount equivalent to the usage fee that should have been paid must be regarded as unjust enrichment.
The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dong-won) announced on the 1st that it overturned the original ruling, which partially ruled in favor of software company A in a damages lawsuit against online education company CEO Mr. B, and remanded the case to the Daegu High Court with a ruling fully in favor of A.
In 2012, company A produced remote lecture content, but an employee of the company that received and supplied this content caused issues by passing copies of the remote lecture content production files and source code to C University and others.
C University created lifelong education center lectures using the source code and operated them from 2014, and in 2016 transferred the lifelong education center's business rights to Mr. B. After discovering unauthorized use of the copyright, company A filed a lawsuit against the new operator of the lifelong education center, Mr. B.
The trial focused on whether the obligation to return unjust enrichment due to unauthorized use of copyright was established and the scope of the return. The first and second trials held that C University was responsible for returning unjust enrichment caused by its fault from 2014 to 2015 to company A, but there was no responsibility after 2016.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that Mr. B must also be held responsible for unauthorized use of lecture content after 2016. The court stated, "Using the copyrighted program without the copyright holder's permission and obtaining benefits from using the copyrighted material without paying the equivalent usage fee without legal cause constitutes unjust enrichment, and since that benefit is considered existing, it must be returned."
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