ISSUES in INTERNET RIGHTS:
CENSORSHIP CASE STUDIES

INTERNET CENSORSHIP CASE STUDIES

Anti-Posco (South Korea)

Sammi Steel Workers Wage Internet War through Anti-POSCO site

(Case study of a struggle against capital's attempt to
control the Internet through intellectual property rights)

Workers who were laid off from Sammi Steel waged an internet war in 1999 against the POSCO company, with the support of NodongNet. In the real world, a fight between sacked workers and a mammoth company like POSCO is reminiscent of David and Goliath. In cyberspace, the tables can always be turned. Organizing support for the fight is much easier online.

Dismissed Sammi workers' homepage forges international alliance

The fight began when POSCO took over the Sammi Steel Co. Ltd. in December 1996 in what it insisted was just a 'property acquisition'. POSCO rejected its obligation to retain the workforce at Sammi. The workers were literally thrown out on the streets, and they fought against POSCO for over four years. The judges of the District and Central Labor Courts and the High Court of Justice all decided that the workers had the right to return to work. But instead of getting back the jobs they were entitled to, the Sammi workers had to continue fighting on the streets; the company appealed to the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court delayed its final ruling , due out in 1999, the Sammi workers decided to put all their efforts into raising public awareness of their case at home and abroad. One of the means they chose was to form an international alliance through the Internet. The website they initially set up in 1997 was redesigned as an anti-POSCO website in May 2000 specifically for this purpose.

The Sammi workers’ anti-POSCO website (http://antiposco.nodong.net) was a parody of POSCO's own website (http://www.posco.co.kr). The POSCO website was naturally full of praise for the company. The workers copied the style and format of the company website but filled theirs with reports of POSCO's shoddy treatment of workers and its disregard for their rights. In March 2000, the Sammi workers toured the whole country calling for re-employment, and in October they went on a 'bicycle march'; the anti-POSCO homepage uploaded news flashes, photographs and animation on a daily basis, and attracted a great deal of attention. The day that the Sammi workers finished their national tour and returned to Seoul was designated 'anti-POSCO day' and demonstrations of solidarity took place abroad at the same time.

The Sammi workers played an active role in promoting international solidarity. On 17 February 1999 they held a protest rally in front of the Australian Embassy in Korea, condemning the oppression of workers from the BHP, the biggest coal mining trade union in Australia. The BHP had also been fighting against the company, which had taken full advantage of individual employment contracts legitimized by Australia's right-wing government in 1999. Since the 1990s, Korean workers have received growing support from international labor organizations. But they have usually been on the receiving end, and it was very rare to see Korean trade unions supporting their counterparts in other countries. That is why the Sammi workers' actions are so noteworthy.

POSCO's reckless attack on the anti-POSCO site and the international community's response

As the anti-POSCO site gained in effectiveness and became instrumental in garnering international support, POSCO launched a reckless attack against it. On 4 April 1999, POSCO claimed that the anti-POSCO site's parody was a violation of intellectual property rights; the company took out a court injunction against the site, demanding it stop imitating the POSCO website design. POSCO applied for an injunction, but the court, instead of holding a hearing, immediately ordered the anti-POSCO site to stop using POSCO's designs. POSCO was not to know, however, that its actions would be like throwing fat into the fire.

After the court decision, NodongNet and JinboNet, appealed to the domestic press and internet users for support, at the same time requesting help through an international alliance. The Association for Progressive Communications (APC), with 26 member networks and 38 support networks, immediately responded to the call for help.

APC sent out an emergency notice entitled "Parody of Korean Multinational Site Threatened by Court Injunction: Creators protesting jobs lost three years ago" and also searched for a mirror site to keep the anti-POSCO site alive. Numerous sites volunteered, including Japan's JCA-Net, Britain's LabourNet/GreenNet, the US's IGC, Australia's C2O, Spain's Nodo50, Canada's Web Networks, Germany's LabourNet, and Ukraine's GLUK. The job proceeded rapidly, since APC already had experience in making mirror sites for servers under attack. Richard Stallman of Linux created a mirror site for the anti-POSCO site. There are now 11 mirror sites in 8 countries, living proof of how reckless it is to take on an open society like the internet through 'monopoly' and 'control.'

Internet users in Korea also rose up against the injunction. The courts had taken issue not only with the use of POSCO’s website design but also with the use of composite graphic photos and red crosses slashed across the company logo. This meant that hundreds of anti- or parody sites were all in danger of facing similar court injunctions from large companies. Aware of this, numerous anti- and parody sites showed interest and support for the anti-POSCO case.

Intellectual property rights, freedom of expression and the internet

POSCO did not take issue with the anti-POSCO website just because it wanted to protect its intellectual property rights. It would have been impossible for anyone to mistake the anti-POSCO site for the company site, and the Sammi workers, the creators of the site, did not profit commercially from running the website. Despite all this, POSCO had taken out an injunction against the site, citing infringement of intellectual property rights. The only thing POSCO had in mind was stopping the website. Clearly, this is nothing less than suppression of freedom of expression. POSCO's intentions were no different from those of military governments in the past, using intellectual property laws to root out the trend of changing the lyrics of popular songs to voice anti-government sentiments.

In some countries, where institutional democracy is relatively well-developed, there is a limit to how much politics and capital can take advantage of direct supervision and censorship. Such measures would have prompted a violent backlash from the people and civic organizations. So politics and capital needed new weapons, one of which they found in the system called intellectual property rights protection. Instead of oppressing the people using direct means, they are now exercising their property rights, that is, politically abusing the system of intellectual property rights in order to oppress the people. By doing so, they are putting property rights before basic rights, clinging to a hypocritical rhetoric that says trying to protect property rights justifies violation of human rights.

Filing an objection to the court injunction

NodongNet resisted POSCO's attempts to suppress free speech on the Internet by launching a legal battle. It filed an objection to the court injunction on 8 June 2000 (the procedure does not involve a separate court case but is part of the court injunction procedures).

However, the judge who had approved the injunction backed down, saying that he did not know much about the case. He passed the case to the collegiate court (presided over by three judges). But the collegiate court also refused to take on the case, saying that it was not something that could be ruled on through injunction procedures. It advised the people involved to formally request a court hearing to obtain a final ruling. The case is still pending in the collegiate court responsible for injunctions, collecting dust with each passing day.

Meanwhile, the administrators of the anti-POSCO site followed the initial court orders and created a new homepage minus any forbidden POSCO designs. But the new site was filled with contents that were even more critical of POSCO. It showed pictures of POSCO boots stamping down on broken glass, and changed the POSCO logo to a swastika in order to liken the company to Hitler. The homepage even sported a "black ribbon campaign" logo, symbolizing the mock funeral of free speech, killed off by POSCO and the courts.

Expanding the anti-POSCO movement

If truth be told, it is not the courts that will protect freedom of expression from attacks by POSCO. The power to protect free speech comes from Internet users. By putting more effort into running websites that those in power want to destroy, by making a dozen more websites if one gets shut down, by showing more interest in and visiting more frequently those sites under attack, internet users can put a stop to capital's attempts to control the internet.

The anti-POSCO site is getting varied responses. Internet users who have shown little interest in basic labor rights or employment issues have taken part in the online signature-collecting campaign. It has also become much easier for workers’ children to participate in the workers' struggle. It is now common to see school children, whose parents or relatives are workers, visit the site and leave words of encouragement. A foreign investment trust company that owns thousands of POSCO stocks wrote to the president of POSCO demanding that he rehire the Sammi workers, just one of the many proofs of the profound changes brought about by using the Internet in the workers' struggle. The Internet has truly become an indispensable part of the labor movement.

The anti-POSCO case does not mean that we can or must always use the tactics of parody. Such tactics can be used as an excuse for legal attacks by a company. But the result of the legal attack on the anti-POSCO site was that it raised awareness of the issue of intellectual property rights and broadened the basis of the labor struggle.

 

Translated by Eung-joo Cho