Copyright Issues on BOT in MMORPG

MMORPG players control their 'avatar' characters within a virtual universe, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, performing quests, building skills, and interacting with other players and computer-generated characters. As players succeed, they acquire in-game assets, experience, and power. Recently, many MMORPG players control their 'avatar' characters with various 'BOT' programs, which play MMORPG for their owners while those owners are away from their computer keyboards. 'BOT' programs enable the owners to advance more quickly within MMORPG than would otherwise be possible. But 'BOT' programs have the potential problems that they may destroy the rule of game, resulting in an unfair game, and the game industry may be damaged from game players' illegally transacting the assets, which are acquired by using the 'BOT' programs. Also, they have the potential copyright infringement. In this situation, Korean administration, regarding the game industry as one of future strategic industries, announced measures to eradicate the 'BOT' program and submitted the amendment of Game Industry Promotion Act which includes the clause for criminal penalties to the people who make the BOT programs and distribute them. The Court's attitude is not clear because on the one hand, it ruled out the act of making and distributing the programs are a breach of criminal law(impeding one's business) and copyright law(adaptation right infringement), but on the other hand they are no breach of those laws. This article considers what copyright problems the making, distributing and using of BOT programs has in the aspects of the infringement of the right of adaptation and integrity, the circumvention of technical protection measures and the legality of reverse engineering, and reviews how to resolve those problems.