South Korea's ruling in Plave libel case reshapes avatar rights in the metaverse era
K-pop group is prompting fresh legal debate in
South Korea over the rights of digital personas – with analysts describing it as a significant shift in how the law defines harm, identity and expression in the age of the metaverse.
The case centred on Plave, a five-member boy band whose anime-style avatars exist solely in the virtual realm but are voiced and animated by real-life performers using motion-capture technology.
Despite their stylised appearance, the court found that online insults directed at the avatars amounted to defamation of the humans behind them – a view legal scholars say reflects a growing recognition of avatars as extensions of individual identity.
'Considering that in today's metaverse era an avatar is not a simple virtual image but a means of self-expression, identity and social communication, defamation against an avatar can constitute an infringement on the actual user's external honour,' wrote Judge Jang Yoo-jin in the May 14 ruling, which ordered the defendant to pay damages to each of the five performers.
Rather than marking the close of a dispute, the verdict is widely seen as the start of a broader legal reckoning over how societies define harm – and personhood – in virtual spaces.
Fans of virtual K-pop boy band Plave look around a pop-up store in Seoul, South Korea, on March 7. Photo: Reuters
The dispute began last July, when a social media user posted a series of mocking videos and derogatory comments targeting Plave, describing them as 'ugly' and ridiculing their performances. Some posts included profanity.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
19 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
Pakistan pet lion jumps over wall, attacks children, woman in street
An escaped pet lion chased a woman and two children down a busy street in Pakistan's Lahore, police said on Friday, with dramatic footage showing the big cat leaping a wall before pouncing on them. Advertisement CCTV footage released by the police showed the lion jumping the barrier around its home and pursuing a woman carrying her shopping on Thursday night. The lion jumped on her back, knocking her to the ground, the footage showed. A police report quoted the father as saying the lion then turned to his five-year-old and seven-year-old children, and clawed their arms and faces. All three were taken to hospital but were not in a critical condition. Advertisement The owners who ran out of the house were 'amused to see their lion attack' the passers-by, the father added in the report.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
North Korean civilian detained after crossing mined land border ‘with help of Seoul military'
A North Korean civilian voluntarily crossed the heavily mined land border between the two countries, aided by the South's military in a delicate 20-hour operation, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Friday. Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, with most going overland to neighbouring China first, then entering a third country such as Thailand before finally making it to the South. Defections across the land border that divides the peninsula are relatively rare, as the area is densely forested, heavily mined and monitored by soldiers on both sides. The North Korean man was first detected by a South Korean military surveillance device sometime between 3am and 4am local time on Thursday near a shallow stream inside the demilitarised zone (DMZ), the JCS said. The man stayed mostly still during the day and was sometimes hard to track due to the lush forest in the area, but South Korea's military approached him that night. 01:22 South Korea suspends propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along border to North Korea South Korea suspends propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along border to North Korea 'The military identified the individual near the MDL, conducted tracking and surveillance,' the JCS said in a statement, referring to the Military Demarcation Line, the de facto border.
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China TV host faces backlash for serving men drumsticks, women chicken wings, revealing bias
A renowned Chinese TV host ignited a heated online controversy after openly expressing her preference for boys over girls and presenting drumsticks to two young men instead of a young woman during a show. Advertisement Zhu Dan bizarrely justified it by stating that 'boys need more nutrition to grow.' Zhu, 44, hailing from Zhejiang province in eastern China, is celebrated for her work on popular TV programmes like Do You Remember and The X Factor. She is a mother to a daughter and a son with her husband, actor Zhou Yiwei, whom she married in 2017. In 2019, she faced widespread backlash following a significant verbal blunder at a fashion event, where she confused the names of several celebrities – an error deemed unacceptable for a prominent and professional host. Zhu Dan is renowned for her contributions to numerous popular TV programmes, and she is a mother to a daughter and a son with her husband, who is an actor. Photo: Weibo The recent controversy erupted during the variety show Wonderland, when Zhu, while preparing chicken soup, remarked that the chicken drumsticks should be given to the two male guests, Zhou Yiran and Dong Sicheng, aged 25 and 28, respectively.
