Copyright Act, current-events reporting and quotation exceptions

Article 7(5) excludes current news reporting which delivers simple facts from copyright protection outright, so a bare news item is never a protected work under Korean law regardless of who reported it first. Article 26 permits reproducing, distributing, publicly performing, or publicly transmitting a work seen or heard in the course of reporting current events by broadcast, newspaper, or other means, to the extent justified by the reporting purpose.

Article 27 lets a media organisation other than the originating outlet reproduce, distribute, or broadcast a news article or editorial inserted in a newspaper or online newspaper under the Act on the Promotion of Newspapers, or carried by a news agency under the Act on the Promotion of News Communications, unless the originating outlet has indicated that such use is prohibited; the permission reaches full articles and editorials rather than only short extracts, and it has not been amended since 2009.

Article 28 separately allows quoting an already-made-public work for news reporting, criticism, education, research, and similar purposes, within a reasonable extent and in compliance with fair practice.

None of the four provisions has a stated commencement day in the consolidated text read: each entered into force under its own amending Act's general rule of six months (Art. 26's 2024 amendment) or, for the earlier amendments touching Arts. 7, 27, and 28, the same six-months-after-promulgation formula, without the Act's addenda stating the calendar day itself.