1. A. Article 44-7(1)1 of the Act on Promotion of the Use of Information and Communications Network and Information Protection, Etc. (hereinafter “Information and Communications Network Act”) provides that “No person shall distribute information with a content distributed, sold, rented, or displayed openly in the form of any obscene code, sound, image, or picture through an information and communications network.”

B. Article 74(1)2 provides that “A person who distributes, sells, leases, or openly displays any obscene sign, sound, image, or motion picture in violation of Article 44-7(1)1 shall be punished by imprisonment with prison labor for not more than one year or by a fine not exceeding 10 million won.”

The term "obscenity" here refers to the expression contrary to the concept of sexual morality by stimulating the sexual desire of ordinary people under the common sense of society, causing sexual interest and impairing normal sexual humiliation.

Discussions on obscenity are directly linked to the concept of sexual morality, awareness of ethics and cultural intent of the general society, which have been naturally formed and developed, and is also closely related to the privacy, right to pursue happiness and diversity of individuals. It is not an appropriate field for the state's penal authority to excessively actively intervene.

Considering this point, it is not sufficient to say that the expression simply gives rise to indecent or disturbed sexual interest in order to be subject to criminal punishment for a certain expression of obscenity.

In light of social norms, it should be deemed to distort the dignity and value of a person as a personality body that must be respected by excessively and girical expression, as it merely appeals to sexual interest and does not have any literary, artistic, ideological, or scientific educational value.