전자적 전송물에 관한 법적 속고 = A Legal Study on E - Products

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

With the growth of the Internet and E-commerce, we have been experiencing rapid changing climate at home as well as at work. While the Internet and E-commerce have enhanced many aspects of our lives, they also have produced many legal issues, at the same time. The WTO has begun to address international trade issues presented by E-commerce through the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce. So far, however, the WTO has not yet produced concrete rules to govern those legal issues. One of the recently emerged issues is the question of `E-products` classification. E-products is, content-based products that traditionally delivered in tangible form but now can be delivered in electronic form via Internet download. Especially digitized books, music, videos and computer software are increasingly substitute for sales of their physical analogues. The main question about the E-products is focused on whether they should be treated as goods subject to the rules of GATT, or services subject to the rules of GATS, or something else. The classification debate on e-products results from the difference between the trade protections of the long-standing GATT rules for goods and those of the relatively newer GATS rules for services, in enforcing the principles such as the most-favored nation treatment and national treatment. USA and Japan take a position favoring the enforcement of GATT rules; on the other hand, EU and many less-developed countries favor the benefits from the GATS rules. Theoretically speaking, none of the positions has concrete justification. E-products has the nature of goods as well as services. One may justifiably say they should be treated as goods so that GATT should govern them; but others may also justifiably say the opposite position. In this respect, we might need to prepare a third regime on this matter; but so far no WTO member nation explicitly support this position. After all, this issue will be resolved through long and winding negotiation process among the WTO member nations. Korea should be prepared