Abstract

Public Performance in Copyright Law is a wider concept, which people generally think. It includes the presentation of a work to the public by acting, musical playing, singing, narrating as well as even the act of mechanical playing phonogram and cinematographic work. Article 29 in Korean Copyright Act is the restriction of an author’s public performance right. It shall be permissible to perform publicly or broadcast a work already made public for nonprofit purposes and without charging any fees to audience, spectators, or third parties, provided that the performers concerned are not paid any remuneration for such performances. Commercial phonograms or cinematographic works may be played back for the public, if no fee is charged to the audience or spectators, except in cases as set forth by Presidential Decree. In recent year, public performance in libraries became a major issue of the Copyright Law. It is a claim that watching cinematographic works in libraries is one of the act that should apply public performance right, thus to use commercial cinematographic works before six months, which was published, need permission to copyright owners. But this claim is unfair because it can make impossible normal library service. Thus there is a need to revise the Copyright Law to understand the difference between act of viewing and public performance in libraries.