I have a question regarding international copyright laws that I'm hoping you can help me with.
I'm an American living in South Korea, and I have another American friend here who has an English blog that was translated and quoted without her permission in a Korean newspaper. The article includes her full name. Not only was the translation inaccurate, but she also never spoke to the person who wrote the article and quoted her. Is this legal in Korea? Thanks for any help you can give me.
This is a hard question to answer without seeing the work in question. Korean copyright law differentiates between creative content and reporting of facts. Blog posts could be simple reporting of facts (free of opinion) or the could be creative. Reporting of facts is not protected.
The Korean Copyright Commission's site is available in English.
Korea is a signatory to WIPO and to the Berne Convention; thus, Korean law can be applied to British publications.
If it is not a copyright violation, it is certainly bad reporting. A letter of protest to the reporter's editor would be in order.