Internet Disruption Likely to Spark Series of Lawsuits

Involved in the unprecedented disruption of Internet traffic are Internet service providers such as KT, Microsoft, which initially provided SQL server infected with the warm virus, the developer and distributors of the warm virus. Yet, it is hard to pinpoint a single party to be held accountable.

Once individuals start to seek damage against businesses, it will likely lead to a series of lawsuits as the businesses might hold accountable other firms such as network providers, which will in turn ask the government for compensations.

The Korea Internet PC Culture Association, an organization among some 24,000 Internet café owners across the country, held a contingency meeting in the morning of January 27 and said that they decided to ask Internet service providers such as KT and Dacom to cut service fees by about 20 billion won, which is equivalent to the estimated damage they suffered.

˝If they refuse to settle the case, we will bring the case to the court for compensations,˝ the association said.

˝Some 700 Internet cafes nationwide were forced to suspend service for 24 hours, losing more than 850 million won,˝ said Cyberia, an Internet café franchising business. ˝We are considering filing a lawsuit given the severity of damage but we have yet to decide which we should hold accountable, network operators or game server providers.˝

˝We lost more than 100 million won as sales over the weekend dropped about 25%,˝ said Internet bookstore YES24. ˝We are mulling some ways to seek damage including provoking the producer`s liability clause.˝

˝We will discuss the legal issues after looking into the cause of the disruption,˝ KT responded. ˝We do not believe there will be a big legal battle since KT repaired the attacked Internet connections in about one hour.˝

Dacom already sent an official message to related firms clarifying that the its Internet networks did not cause the problem. Legal experts point out that it will not be easy to pinpoint certain parties to be held accountable.

˝We have to closely examine the terms of contracts and the incident itself, yet some must be held accountable for the damage done if it was not the work of nature,˝ said Kim Cheol-ho, a lawyer at Yun&Yang Law Firm. ˝To make a case, however, there must be a plaintiff and hard evidence about losses.˝

˝It is hard to estimate the scale of the losses generated from the Internet disruption, ˝ said an official at the Ministry of Information and Communication. ˝We are currently conducting a survey to find out the extent of the damage as the repair and inspection work was all completed in the morning.˝

smhong@donga.com leon@donga.com