A ruling has been made that Homeplus does not have to compensate copyright holders for copyright infringement related to music played by tenants.
The Supreme Court's first division (Chief Justice Ma Yong-ju) announced on the 9th that it had dismissed the appeal from the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) regarding a damage compensation lawsuit amounting to 2,697,300 won filed against Homeplus's Geumcheon, Incheon Songdo, Jakjeon, Munhwa, and Jinju stores, stating that the appeal was rejected on the 3rd of last month. It upheld the earlier rulings in favor of Homeplus in the first and second trials.
KOMCA plays a role in collecting and distributing copyright fees on behalf of composers and lyricists. According to the ruling, Homeplus signed a copyright usage contract with KOMCA but terminated it in 2012. However, KOMCA claimed that Homeplus infringed on copyrights by playing music without permission in some of its rental stores in September 2021 and filed a damage compensation lawsuit in January 2022, claiming that Homeplus had tolerated this.
KOMCA stated, "Homeplus has a duty to manage and supervise the act of playing music in the rental stores but did not fulfill this obligation." On the other hand, Homeplus argued that it had no responsibility to manage and supervise the music playback activities of rental store operators.
In the trial, whether the music playback by the rental store operators violated copyright law was not at issue. Instead, the key issue was whether Homeplus had a responsibility to manage and supervise the copyright infringement activities of the rental operators.
Both the first and second trials ruled in favor of Homeplus. The second trial court stated, "There is no legal obligation for a large store operator like Homeplus to be responsible for copyright infringement by rental stores." The court also noted that Homeplus could not directly control or manage the music played on the speakers owned by the rental store operators. The Supreme Court also found the second trial's ruling to be correct.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of KOMCA in a recent case concerning the 'unjust enrichment return lawsuit' filed against another franchise coffee shop. The defendants included small coffee shops, fast food outlets, convenience stores, and others. In this case, the lawsuit progressed on the premise that business owners have a responsibility to manage and supervise copyright infringement activities in their stores.
According to copyright law, when music that is not for sale is played publicly, copyright fees must be paid. The court recognized that the music played by the coffee shop owner through a store music service provider is not from a sales record, thus making it subject to copyright fee payments.