The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 29th that it will distribute a guidebook to help with the practical application of standard contracts in the comic sector, in collaboration with the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency, starting June 13.
The standard contract for the comic sector, revised last June, stipulates that if webtoon authors publish 50 episodes, they are guaranteed 2 rights to take a break and that webtoon service providers must provide authors with revenue settlement statements.
This guidebook consists of a total of 3 chapters, with Chapter 1 containing explanations of the main contents of the standard contract, distribution and utilization, as well as basic principles, precautions when drafting the contract, and how to deal with contract violations.
Chapter 2 indicates the essential parts of the contract content or issues that may arise regarding unfairness for each standard contract, highlighted as 'core' elements. In the case of the 'webtoon serialization contract', the core provisions include contract duration, rights transfer, manuscript delivery and serialization timing, breaks, payment, settlement, rights for derivative works, respect for moral rights, correction, and editing.
Chapter 3 addresses concepts and examples of copyright that are helpful for reference when dealing with contracts, special provisions for audiovisual works, authors, copyright content, the protection period, transfer, exercise, and extinction of economic rights, and responses to copyright infringement.
The guidebook can be downloaded from the websites of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korea Creative Content Agency, and the Korea Manhwa Promotion Agency starting June 13.