[fn Square] Textbook Copyright, Whose Right Is It For?

Textbooks are public goods. The state certifies them, schools adopt them, and countless students use them as a learning standard. It cannot be justified for some private publishers to monopolize textbooks with high public interest for private gain and restrict competition.

The reality faced by an edtech startup in the recent educational content market clearly reveals the point where education, technology, and fair competition collide. The startup formally requested copyright use to produce learning materials based on a specific textbook, but the textbook publisher refused. The problem is that this refusal was not due to negotiation failure or technical defects, but because of the "concern of becoming a competitor."

As a result, students at schools using that textbook cannot use the learning content produced by the startup. The entrepreneur was deprived of the opportunity to enter the market, and students and parents lost the choice to access diverse content. Textbooks, which should stand on the public interest of education, are functioning as tools for the profit of specific private companies.

Textbooks are different from general commercial publications. These books, certified through the public procedures of the Ministry of Education and adopted for use in schools at all levels, function as the foundation of public education beyond mere sales purposes. Workbooks or learning materials produced based on textbooks play an important role in supplementing private education and bridging learning gaps. In this market, some publishers monopolizing copyrights and blocking the entry of other businesses ultimately lead to the infringement of learning rights.

Intellectual property rights must be protected. However, the abuse of copyright must be clearly checked. Especially in the case of textbooks with strong public interest, the exercise of rights should be balanced with the public good. Continuously refusing specific businesses while allowing some companies to use them in the same form can no longer be seen as free market competition. This threatens not only fairness in the market but also the diversity of education.

Students do not use the textbooks they choose. They study with the textbooks adopted by schools and teachers. Therefore, if one publisher restricts the use of content related to that textbook, the damage is directly transferred to the students. This closed structure ultimately hinders the growth potential of the entire educational content industry and blocks new attempts and innovations.

Now I want to ask the market. Is privatizing public textbooks and locking the market truly a choice for the future of education? We must no longer neglect the current structure that threatens the fairness of education, the diversity of the content ecosystem, and students' learning rights. The government and fair trade authorities must strictly examine the abuse of copyright that undermines the public nature of textbooks and activate institutional mechanisms to ensure that the exercise of rights by market-dominant businesses does not violate the principles of fair trade.

The trust in public education stems from a transparent distribution structure and an open content ecosystem. Innovation in the market centered around textbooks must be guaranteed, and a field of content competition must be opened so that students and parents can make diverse choices. What is needed now is not just the legitimacy of exercising rights but an order and responsibility that align with the public good.

It cannot be justified for some private publishers to monopolize textbooks with high public interest for private gain and restrict competition.

The fact that intellectual property rights, formed based on public interest, are becoming barriers to entry shows the structural limitations of our educational ecosystem.

In a reality where the interests of existing businesses take precedence over efforts to diversify educational content and protect learning rights, we must question whether textbook copyright is fulfilling its role as a public good.

Jeon Hwa-seong, Chairman of the Early Investment Accelerator Association, CEO of CNT Tech