Possible Political Interests Behind the Arrest of Streaming Media CEOs in Korea

Korea joins China in the attempt of cracking down streaming video sites . CEOs of five media storage companies have been put under arrest under the charge of copyright infringement, but some say (Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo) that there may be a connection between hosting streaming videos of anti-government candlelight vigils and the recent arrests.

As we learn from this paper, among the five companies under prosecutors attack were Kutech and Nowcom. The first runs the popular Endisk site, while the latter is responsible for a site called PDBOX whose main focus is media storage and P2P video streaming. However, there’s another service called Afreeca.com which Nowcom also manages, and which according to a number of critics makes the actual target of the legal action as a result of hosting programming and video recordings unfavorable to the government related to the protests against meat imports that have occurred lately.

The recent crackdown seems also to be motivated by unsympathizing attitude towards USA. The Korean government has faced serious protests as a result of its decision to favor imports of U.S. meat. As Nowcom posted these protests on an online forum the company suspects this to be the real reason behind the prosecution as it declared to JoongAng Ilbo:

The arrests naturally make us question whether the government authorities are conducting this probe with a politically motivated intention to prevent the expansion of candlelight vigils. Nowcom never helped Internet users infringe upon copyrights of materials.