In development debates, as noted earlier, the fact that intellectual rights, including copyright protection itself can hold back economic growth is not new. In fact, in the arts the maxim that “A good artist is a good thief” is as ancient as creativity itself. Civilizations have learned from each other for millennia and continue to do so.

Nonetheless, a prominent distinction must be made between the facilitation of sharing, using, or building on other ideas and rewarding those who deserve to be rewarded. It is no secret that many artists struggle to make ends meet while their works are pirated. This not only diminishes their income, but it also takes on toll on other aspects of their well-being — many feel hopeless when they realize that they are unable to fight infringement, delinking creative work and human development. Moreover, creative economies themselves lose income, as more and more revenues are lost via piracy. To tackle this debate, Korea seeks to “realize a cultural renaissance.”<sup>57</sup> In 2013, Yoo Jinryong, Korea's new Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism explained his nation's position:

# Figure <u>9</u>

“A new administration was recently inaugurated in Korea and one of its policy priorities is to “realize a cultural renaissance”. Against this backdrop, efforts to reassess the value of culture are being made more vigorously than ever. In addition, the economic paradigm is being shifted from the past industrial economy where the source of value creation was labor, capital and knowledge to the creative economy, which is based on imagination and creativity.

Copyright lies in the heart of all these changes. Copyright is the foundation for the advancement of culture and the arts, together with the growth of the contents industry, by providing a guarantee for rewards corresponding to efforts to create high-quality contents. It is also the driving force leading the era of the creative economy. In a society where copyright is not respected and legitimate rewards for creators are not guaranteed due to illegal reproductions, it is impossible to realize core values of the creative economy, which are novel creativity and imagination. ...

Meanwhile, the Korean government has also pushed ahead with a policy task of “facilitation of fair and convenient use of copyrighted works” in a bid to promote new creation activities and create an environment where the public can use copyrighted works unhindered.

The economic benefit of the utilization of public information is estimated at KRW 10 trillion annually. Advanced countries are therefore actively responding to cultural and economic demand by securing public domain such as expired copyrighted works, dedicated works through donation or permission for free use, and works open to the public by public organizations free of charge, and expanding services to provide them.”<sup>58</sup> <u>Source: Yoo Jinryong,</u> Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of Korea (October 2013)

> 57 Yoo Jinryong, A Message from the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism _, 2012 Annual Report on Copyright in Korea_ (Seoul: Korea Copyright Commission, 2013), 6-8, accessed April 13, 2015, <u>http://www.copyright.or.kr/eng/doc/activities/2012AR.pdf.</u> 58 Ibid.

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