Defend Sammi Workers' Anti-POSCO Website

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Request for mirroring of threatened website

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PLEASE REPOST WIDELY

Background

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In early 1997, POSCO, a South Korean multinational, bought part of the Sammi Specialty Steel Co., and ignoring a collective agreement to rehire Sammi workers, forced two thousand of a total workforce of 2,342 out onto the street.

For the last three years, 200 former Sammi workers have carried on fighting for their reinstatement, winning court orders which have consequently been ignored by POSCO. They set up the Anti-POSCO Website, a parody site modeled on the POSCO site, to express their rightful claims and publicise their plight. Now that website is being attacked by POSCO, as a supposed infringement of copyright. POSCO have been granted a provisional injunction against the website in a Seoul lawcourt while they proceed with their main lawsuit. In many countries parody is legally protected. This does not appear to be the case in Korea.

The website involved

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The website is in English and Korean and is on Korean Labornet, Nodongnet, a sub-group of the Korean Progressive Network, Jinbonet.

The URL of the threatened site is http://antiposco.nodong.net/

But because of the provisional injunction it is being removed from there.

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is calling for a mirroring campaign to defend the website. See http://www.apc.org/english/rights/alerts/

The site is now being mirrored by LabourNet (on GreenNet, the British APC member) at http://www.labournet.org/anti-posco and JCA-NET, the Japanese APC member, at http://antiposco.jca.apc.org/, BUT WE NEED MANY MORE MIRRORS BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE APC. There is safety in numbers on an issue like this. The more mirrors we get as soon as possible the more difficult it is for POSCO to take further legal proceedings against any individual website or Internet Service Provider. We have to make clear to big corporations that attempts to crush free discussion on the Internet by using the law courts will not be tolerated and will ALWAYS result in a lot of bad publicity for them.

A zipped file of the entire site is available from chrisbailey@labournet.org.uk. Do not request the site from any of the Korean oganisations. They are bound by the Seoul court injunction. LabourNet is carrying out a mirroring campaign as an act of solidarity. We were NOT requested to do so by JinboNet, NodongNet or any of the Korean organisations that are subject to the provisional injunction from the Seoul law court. LabourNet is, of course, not the subject of any such injunction.

We will be creating a site with a listing of all mirror sites. If you have a logo you want us to use when listing your mirror, please send a copy with your request for the anti-POSCO zip file.

Additional actions

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Protest faxes can be sent to the President of POSCO,  Fax 82-2-3457-1900

Protest e-mails can be sent at the following site: http://www.posco.co.kr/en/customer/howto/cust_e.html

Also we are trying to put together an international team of lawyers to advise on the implications of this threat to Internet free speech and to help the Korean lawyers fight against the POSCO lawsuit. If you are a lawyer or a law student and think you could help please contact me.

Chris Bailey <chrisbailey@labournet.org.uk>

LabourNet