December 3-9
China
In the first case of its kind in China, the Beijing Internet Court ruled that AI-generated content can enjoy copyright protection. The plaintiff used a text-to-image AI service to generate an image of a woman that he posted online; a blogger then used the image in a blog post without obtaining the plaintiff’s permission. The court held that “as long as an AI-generated image reflects the original intellectual investment of a human being, it should be considered a work that is protected by copyright laws.” It ordered the defendant to publicly apologize and pay the plaintiff 500 RMB ($70) in damages. The decision sparked intense controversy among Chinese scholars.
The Supreme People’s Court’s judicial interpretation of the Civil Code chapter on contracts took effect on December 5, 2023. The SPC had published a draft interpretation in November 2022 to seek public comments, and reported receiving more than 2,000 suggestions. An analysis and comparison of the final version against the 2022 draft can be found here.
Hong Kong
Agnes Chow, one of three founders of the now-disbanded youth party Demosisto, said she probably will not return to Hong Kong where she has been charged with violating the National Security Law. Chow was released on bail and recently was allowed to travel to Canada to study. Chief Executive John Lee said that fugitives will be “pursued for life unless they turn themselves in.” Of the other Demosisto founders, Joshua Wong is in jail awaiting trial on a subversion charge and Nathan Law fled to Britain to avoid a similar charge.
Final arguments were made in the 10-month-long trial of 16 pro-democracy activists accused of conspiring to subvert state power by holding an unofficial primary election in 2020. One of the three judges who heard the case without a jury in West Kowloon Magistrates Court said a verdict might be delivered in three to four months. In addition to the 16 defendants, 31 others have pleaded guilty in the same matter and will not be sentenced until after a verdict is handed down in the trial.
The High Court has authorized judicial review of the Correctional Service Department’s decision to bar detained activist Owen Chow Ka-shing from receiving a history book because it contains a reproduction of Botticelli’s famous Renaissance-era painting of Venus. Local media reported that authorities returned the book to sender with the note: “Nudity! Return!” Chow is among the 16 pro-democracy activists being tried on charges of conspiring to subvert state power. He has separately accused detention center authorities of barring him from receiving two Buddhism-related books and then obstructing him from complaining to the ombudsman.
Three leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the group that organized annual memorials of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, have appealed their convictions for withholding information from Hong Kong police. Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan, and Tsui Hon-kwong were convicted in March and given 4 1/2 month sentences. Defense lawyer Philip Dykes argued that the three were not obligated to respond because they were not foreign agents, and that prosecutors had the burden of proving they were.
Japan
Japan's Justice Ministry plans to ask the legislation to revise the Code of Criminal Procedure to introduce electronic arrest warrants and interrogation records. An advisory panel of professors and senior judicial officials developed the draft revisions. The panel also suggested expanding the use of videoconferencing in criminal trials and allowing defense lawyers to view the prosecution’s evidence online.
The Fukuoka District Court upheld the constitutionality of a provision of the Nationality Law that automatically deprives Japanese nationals of their citizenship upon taking foreign citizenship. The court ruled that the purpose and means of the law are reasonable. The plaintiff was a Japanese national who took US citizenship in 2004. In October, the Supreme Court rejected a similar lawsuit by eight former Japanese citizens who obtained citizenship in various European countries while living and working abroad.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other cabinet members were grilled by opposition lawmakers about allegations that their faction of the governing Liberal Democratic Party failed to fully report more than 100 million yen ($690,000) received from fundraising, in possible violation of campaign and election laws. Kishida also was questioned about ties to the Unification Church.
Koreas
A special legislative committee in South Korea approved a revision to the Public Official Election Act to ban political campaign videos using AI-generated deep fakes during the 90 days prior to an election. If approved by the full legislature, persons who distribute or share such videos with others can face up to seven years in prison or a 50 million won ($37,985) fine.
Prosecutors in Seoul questioned a former leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Song Young-gil, in connection with alleged vote buying during the party's 2021 leadership election, which Song ultimately won. Prosecutors allege that Song’s campaign distributed cash envelopes totaling 94 million won ($70,996) to 20 DPK lawmakers and other party members. Rep. Youn Kwan-suk, who worked for Song's campaign, is currently standing trial on charges of handing out the cash envelopes. Song denies the charges.
The Seoul High Court ordered Apple Inc. to pay 70,000 won ($53.5) to each of seven South Korean iPhone users for intentionally slowing down their devices after software updates. The appellate decision followed lower court rulings that rejected compensation requests by more than 62,000 South Korean iPhone users; these seven plaintiffs appealed. The High Court said Apple had a duty to fully explain that installing the updates would slow the devices.
North Korea accused the United States of double standards for letting rival South Korea launch a spy satellite from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base after condemning the North’s earlier satellite launch. North Korea put a own military spy satellite into orbit for the first time on November 21, drawing rebukes from Washington, Seoul, and their partners for violating UN Security Council resolutions.
Taiwan
Taiwan's legislature amended the Criminal Compensation Act to allow foreign nationals who are inappropriately detained during legal proceedings to seek state compensation. Previously, only foreigners from countries where nationals of the Republic of China (Taiwan) were entitled to compensation for wrongful detention enjoyed the same right in Taiwan. The amendment also relaxes the statute of limitations and increases compensation for any fines that were paid.