Is it a crime to insult virtual idols? South Korean court says yes
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Plave is among the many K-pop groups that use avatars to represent actual artistes.
PHOTO: THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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SEOUL – A virtual idol group have won a civil case against a commenter who disparaged their looks online in one of the first cases related to the rights of celebrities exclusively using digitally created images to represent themselves.
The Goyang branch of the Uijeongbu District Court in Gyeonggi province ruled in favour of the five members of the group. They accused the defendant of harming their reputation in the form of insult, and requested compensation of 6.5 million won (S$6,014) per person.
While the defendant’s derogatory comment, posted on X in July 2024, targeted the virtual avatars, the court recognised the real persons behind these digital characters and upheld their claim for damages.
The defendant claimed that the comments were targeted against fictional characters whose identities were not the same as the actual people behind the screens.
The court, however, said an insult against someone’s digital avatar should be regarded as libelous against the actual person.
“The victim should be specified for the crime of insult, but it does not necessarily mean (the victim’s) name or group has to be specified. The specification (of the victim) can be accomplished if the people who know about the victim are made aware who the insults are targeting, based on the expression and the circumstances,” the court said in its ruling.
The defendant was found to have posted profanity against the group and the people playing the characters in the group, whose faces and identities are not made public.
“The avatar in the era of the metaverse is more than a virtual image but a way of expression of the user, one’s identity and one’s way of communicating with society,” the court said in its ruling. It added that the defendant should compensate for the pain caused by one’s expressions of discontent.
But the court said the compensation should be 100,000 won per person.
The group appealed the case, saying the ruling is significant in setting a legal precedent in cases involving an avatar, but they raised issues over the compensation.
A musical virtual idol has been growing in popularity in South Korea, with movements and expressions tracked through motion capture technology involving real people.
The actual face and personal information of the people controlling the avatars are usually not revealed to the public. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
