Chapter 1 General Provisions

Article 1 (Purpose)

These Terms and Conditions are intended to regulate the rights, obligations and responsibilities, usage procedures and other necessary matters between members and the company in using the services (hereinafter referred to as “Services”) that fall under each of the following items in accordance with the Telecommunications Business Act and the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc.

1. Online services provided by “Dong-A.com” (hereinafter referred to as the “Company”)

2. All services that the Company develops itself or provides through collaboration agreements with other companies, etc.

Article 2 (Notice and Effect of Terms and Conditions)

1. The contents of these Terms and Conditions shall take effect when they are posted on the service screen or notified to members by other means.

2. The Company may change the Terms and Conditions when adding new services for members or when there are important reasons in accordance with the Company’s policies, and such change shall take effect by the same method as the preceding paragraph.

Article 3 (Rules other than Terms and Conditions)

1. Matters not specified in these Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the Framework Act on Telecommunications, the Telecommunications Business Act, the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc., and other relevant laws, regulations or customary practices.

2. The Company may determine detailed matters regarding individual services, and the contents thereof shall be announced through the user guide for the relevant service.

Article 4 (Definition of Terms)

The definitions of terms used in these Terms and Conditions are as follows:

1. Member: A person who agrees to the Company’s Terms and Conditions, receives a user ID and password, and enters into a service use agreement.

2. Registration: A person who wishes to become a member agrees to these Terms and Conditions, enters the required information into the Company’s service use application form, applies for a service use agreement, and obtains the Company’s approval.

3. ID: An email address set by the member and approved and registered by the Company for member identification and service use.

4. Password: A combination of letters and numbers set by the member to confirm the member’s identity and protect the member’s rights and confidentiality.

5. Operator: A person selected by the Company for the overall management and smooth operation of the service.

6. Withdrawal: A member’s termination of the service use agreement due to expiration of the term or other various reasons.

7. Separate terms and conditions and usage regulations regarding individual services may contain separate definitions not defined in these Terms and Conditions.

Chapter 2 Service Use Agreement

Article 5 (Establishment of Use Agreement)

1. In order for a member to apply for membership in this service, he/she must first read and agree to these terms and conditions. Clicking the "Agree" button online is considered as agreement to these terms and conditions.

2. The use agreement is established when the company approves the user's application for use. However, if the company deems it necessary, the member may be required to undergo a separate identity verification procedure.

3. The company may differentiate the use of members by classifying them into different grades according to the company policy, and differentiate the use time, number of uses, service menus, etc.

4. The company may request additional information for separate registration from members according to the company policy

and service menu, and must obtain consent to the additional terms and conditions.

5. The company may restrict use or impose age-based restrictions on members in order to comply with the grades and age groups in accordance with the 'Act on the Promotion of Films and Video Products' and the 'Juvenile Protection Act'.

Article 6 (Approval and Restrictions on Application for Use)

1. The Company approves applications for use when a member accurately fills in all the information specified in the application for use.

2. The Company may withhold approval until the cause is resolved in the following cases:

① When there is no room in service-related facilities
② When there are technical difficulties
③ In other cases where the Company deems it necessary for financial or technical reasons
④ When identity verification is not possible
⑤ When the conditions for subscription are not met

3. The Company may not approve or cancel subscription in the following cases:

① When the application is made using another person's name
② When the contents of the application for the service agreement are false
③ When applying for the purpose of disrupting social order and morals
④ When interfering with others' use of the service or stealing information
⑤ When applying for an ID with sexually suggestive or obscene content
⑥ When applying for an ID that is anti-social and violates relevant laws and regulations
⑦ When applying for an ID that is judged to be vulgar or vulgar
⑧ When the applicant is under 14 years of age
⑨ When other application requirements set by the company are not met

Article 7 (Special Rules on Membership Registration of Minors)

1. The company may cancel or deny membership registration for users under the age of 14 who have not gone through the consent confirmation process of their parents or other legal representatives.

2. The parents or other legal representatives of users under the age of 14 may request to view, correct, or update personal information about the child or withdraw consent to membership registration, and in such cases, the company must take necessary measures without delay.

Article 8 (Change of Member Information)

1. Members must faithfully manage their own information in order to use this service, and if there are any changes to their member information, they must directly change it on the 'Change Member Information' page or notify the company of the changes via e-mail or other methods.

2. The company is not responsible for any disadvantages that arise from failure to reflect the changes in Paragraph 1.

Article 9 (Protection of Personal Information)

1. The company must obtain the consent of the user when collecting the user's personal information.

2. If personal information is used for purposes other than internal management or statistics, or is provided to a third party without the member's consent, or is lost, stolen, leaked, or altered, the company shall be fully responsible for any damages suffered by the member as a result.

Chapter 3 Obligations of the Contracting Parties

Article 10 (Obligations of the Company)

1. The company must have a security system for personal information protection so that members can safely use the service, and must faithfully implement measures such as maintenance, inspection, or recovery.

2. The company will not leak or distribute the member's personal information learned in relation to the provision of the service to a third party without the member's consent, and will endeavor to protect it. Other matters regarding the protection of members’ personal information are subject to the Information and Communications Network Act and the personal information processing policy separately established by the company.

3. The company does not send commercial advertising emails, SMS text messages, etc. that members have not consented to receiving.

4. When the company provides services to members by entering into a service provision agreement with a third party, the company shall specify the specific member information of the member that will be provided to the third party for the purpose of providing the service for each individual service, and shall share the member’s personal information with the third party only within the scope of consent and during the period of provision of the relevant service after receiving the individual and explicit consent of the member, and shall comply with relevant laws and regulations.

5. The company shall, in principle, process complaints filed by members immediately if it deems them justified. However, if immediate processing is difficult, the company shall notify the member of the reason and processing schedule.

Article 11 (Member’s Obligations)

1. Members shall comply with relevant laws and regulations, the provisions of these Terms and Conditions, the user guide and precautions, and other matters notified or announced by the company, and shall not engage in any acts that interfere with the company’s business.

2. Members may not engage in any commercial activities using the service without the company’s prior approval.

3. Members may not copy, reproduce, modify, translate, publish, broadcast or use in any other way the information obtained through the service without the prior consent of the company, or provide it to others. 4.

4.When using images including photographs, members must acquire the portrait rights, trademark rights, patent rights and other rights of the subject, and in the event of a dispute over these rights, the member shall assume all responsibility.

5. Members must not commit the following acts when using the service:

① Collecting and storing other members' IDs and personal information and using them illegally
② Reproducing, modifying, publishing or broadcasting information obtained through the service for purposes other than the member's use without the prior consent of the company, or providing it to others
③ Acts that infringe upon the company's copyrights, copyrights of others, or other rights
④ Acts that distribute information, sentences, figures, etc. that violate public order and morals to others
⑤ Acts that are objectively judged to be related to crimes
⑥ Acts that defame or insult others
⑦ Acts of hacking or distributing computer viruses
⑧ Acts of transmitting advertisements or advertising information or other acts for business purposes
⑨ Any acts that interfere or are likely to interfere with the stable operation of the service
⑩ Other acts that violate relevant laws and regulations

6. Members must comply with relevant laws and regulations, matters stipulated in these Terms and Conditions, service use instructions, and precautions.

Chapter 4 Service Use

Article 12 (Scope of Service Use)

Members can use the service with the ID issued upon signing up for membership through the company.

Article 13 (Provision of Information)

The company may provide members with various information that it deems necessary during the member's use of the service by means of e-mail or other methods.

Article 14 (Fees and Paid Information, etc.)

1. The services provided by the company are basically free of charge. However, for separate paid information and services, you must pay the fee specified for the information and service in order to use them.

2. In principle, users must pay the usage fee before using the paid services provided by the company. Payment methods for the usage fees for paid services provided by the company include mobile phone payment and credit card payment, and there may be differences in payment methods for each paid service.

Article 15 (Use of paid information and paid additional services)

The company may additionally request personal information of members that is absolutely necessary for payment, and members must accurately provide the personal information requested by the company. The company shall not be liable for compensating members for damages incurred by members due to personal information provided falsely or inaccurately, unless it is due to the company's intention or negligence.

Article 16 (Cancellation of subscription and cancellation/termination of contract by users of paid information and services)

1. Users who have entered into a contract with the company for the use of paid information and services may cancel their subscription within 7 days from the date of receiving the notice of receipt confirmation. However, the user's right to cancel their subscription may be limited if the company takes one of the following measures:

1) When the fact that withdrawal of subscription is not possible is included in the display
2) When a trial product is provided
3) When a method such as temporary or partial use is provided

2. When any of the following reasons exist, the user may cancel or terminate the content use agreement within 3 months from the date of receiving the content in question or within 30 days from the date the user learned or could have learned of the fact.

1) When the content agreed upon in the use agreement is not provided
2) When the content provided is different or significantly different from the display, advertisement, etc.
3) When normal use is significantly impossible due to other defects in the content

3. The cancellation of subscription under Paragraph 1 and the cancellation/termination of contract under Paragraph 2 take effect when the user expresses such intention to the company by phone, e-mail, or facsimile.

4. After receiving the expression of intent to cancel subscription or cancel/terminate contract expressed by the user pursuant to Paragraph 3, the company shall reply to the “User” of such fact without delay.

5. Before expressing intent to cancel or terminate the contract for the reasons in Paragraph 2, the user may request complete correction of defects in the content or service use by setting a reasonable period of time.

Article 17 (Cancellation of subscription by users of paid information and services and effects of cancellation/termination of contract)

1. The company shall refund the payment using the same method used for payment within 3 business days from the date on which the user expressed intent to cancel the subscription for paid information and services or from the date on which the company responded to the user’s intent to cancel/terminate the paid information and service contract. If refunding using the same method is not possible, the company shall notify the user in advance. In this case, if the company delays the refund to the user, the company shall pay the user a delayed interest calculated by multiplying the delayed interest rate determined and announced by the Fair Trade Commission by the delay period.

2. In the event that the Company refunds in accordance with Paragraph 1, the Company may deduct the amount corresponding to the profit that the User has obtained from the use of the Service and refund it.

3. In refunding the above amount, if the User has paid for the goods, etc. using a payment method such as a credit card or electronic money, the Company shall request the business operator who provided the payment method to suspend or cancel the claim for the goods, etc. without delay. However, this may not be the case if the deduction of the amount in Paragraph 2 is necessary.

4. In the event that the Company, the person who received the payment for the paid information and services, etc., or the person who entered into the paid information and service use contract with the User are not the same person, each party shall be jointly liable for the performance of obligations related to the refund of the payment due to the cancellation of the subscription or termination/cancellation of the contract.

5. The Company shall not claim a penalty or compensation for damages from the User due to the cancellation of the subscription. However, this shall not affect the User’s claim for compensation for the cancellation/termination of the contract.

Article 18 (Overpayment)

1. In the event of an overpayment, the Company shall refund the full amount of the overpayment using the same method used to pay the usage fee. However, if a refund using the same method is not possible, the Company shall notify the User in advance.

2. In the event of an overpayment due to a reason attributable to the Company, the Company shall refund the full amount of the overpayment regardless of contract costs, fees, etc. However, in the event of an overpayment due to a reason attributable to the User, the User shall bear the cost incurred by the Company in refunding the overpayment within a reasonable range.

3. In the event that the Company refuses to refund the overpayment claimed by the User, the Company shall be responsible for proving that the usage fee was properly charged.

Article 19 (Compensation for User Damages Due to Paid Information and Services, etc.)

The Company shall handle matters regarding the standards, scope, methods, and procedures for compensating for user damages due to paid information and services, etc. in accordance with the Digital Content User Protection Guidelines.

Article 20 (Member Postings)

The Company operates various community bulletin boards and comment services so that Members can express their opinions and share common interests. If the content of a service posted or registered on each community service bulletin board is judged to fall under any of the following, the company may delete, move, or refuse to register the content and restrict the poster's use without the prior consent of the member.

① If the content defames or slanders other members or third parties and damages their reputation
② If the content is distributed or linked to in violation of public order and morals
③ If the content is deemed to be related to a criminal act
④ If the content infringes upon the copyright or other rights of the company or other third parties
⑤ If the posting period specified by the company is exceeded
⑥ If the member links to his or her own homepage or bulletin board
⑦ If the posting does not match the nature of the bulletin board
⑧ If the posting is judged to be in violation of other relevant laws

Article 21 (Copyright of postings)

The rights to materials posted on the service are as follows:

1. The rights and responsibilities for postings belong to the poster. However, the company has the right to post the above postings within the service, and also has the right to process and edit postings created using the Dong-A.com (Dong-A Ilbo) service, and members who have posted such postings are considered to have agreed to this.

2. Members may not commercially use materials posted on the service, such as processing and selling them.

Article 22 (Service Usage Hours)

1. In principle, the service usage hours are 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, unless there are special business or technical difficulties.

2. In the event that the company intends to suspend service provision due to unavoidable circumstances such as regular maintenance, the reason for service suspension and suspension time will be notified in advance as a rule.

Article 23 (Responsibility for Service Usage)

Members may not engage in any business activities using the service, except in cases where the company has officially permitted this in writing, and in particular, may not engage in illegal activities such as hacking, money-making advertisements, commercial activities through pornographic websites, and illegal distribution of commercial software. In the event that a member violates this, the member shall bear all responsibility for the results and damages arising therefrom, as well as legal actions by relevant organizations.

Article 24 (Suspension of Service Provision)

1. The Company may suspend service provision in the following cases.

① In case of unavoidable circumstances such as maintenance of service facilities
② In case a fixed-term telecommunications service provider suspends telecommunications services as stipulated in the Telecommunications Business Act
③ In case of other force majeure

2. In case of service provision disruption due to unavoidable circumstances such as a national emergency, power outage, service facility failure, or service usage surge, the Company may restrict or suspend all or part of the service, and shall not be liable for any deletion, non-transmission, or loss of other communication data resulting therefrom.

3. In case the Company restricts or suspends service use pursuant to the provisions of Paragraphs 1 and 2, the Company shall notify the member of the reason and period of restriction in advance as much as possible.

4. In case a user violates the provisions of these Terms and Conditions, the Company may restrict the use of the service at its discretion without separate notice only to the member in question. In this case, the Company may prohibit the member in question from accessing the service and may delete the ID and all or part of the posted content at its discretion.

5. When the Company determines that it is necessary to change or delete the ID and other information set by the member upon registration, considering the usage rate of the ID and other information, the member's purpose of using the service, and other various reasons, the Company may recommend this to the member. If the member does not raise an objection, the Company may change or delete the above information at its discretion.

Chapter 5 Service Use Restrictions and Contract Termination

Article 25 (Service Use Restrictions)

1. In the following cases, the Company may terminate the member's service contract or restrict the use of the service for a certain period of time without prior notice.

① When stealing another person's ID, password, email address, or resident registration number
② When related to a criminal act
③ When violating public order and morals
④ When damaging another person's reputation or causing disadvantage
⑤ When hindering sound use, such as causing damage to the service
⑥ When violating other related laws and regulations

Article 26 (Termination of Contract)

1. When a member wishes to terminate the service agreement, the member must submit a termination request to the company online or through any other method.

2. When a member engages in any of the following acts, the company may terminate the service agreement or suspend use of the service for a specified period without prior notice.

① If you steal another person's service ID and password
② If you intentionally interfere with the operation of the service
③ If you intentionally distribute content that is detrimental to public order and morals
④ If a member plans or executes the use of the service for the purpose of harming national interests or social public interests
⑤ If you commit an act that damages another person's reputation or causes disadvantages
⑥ If you send advertising information against the will of another member
⑦ If you distribute computer virus programs that cause destruction, alteration, or other malfunctions of information and communication facilities or information
⑧ If you infringe on the intellectual property rights of the company or another person
⑨ If there is a request for correction, such as deletion, from an external organization such as the Information and Communications Ethics Committee or an authoritative interpretation from the National Election Commission that it constitutes illegal electioneering
⑩ If you illegally use another person's personal information, user ID, and password
⑪ If you copy, distribute, or commercially use information obtained through the company's service information without the company's prior consent
⑫ If a member posts obscene material on the bulletin board or allows the bulletin board to link to a site that contains obscene or other content that is detrimental to morals
⑬ In the event of violation of these Terms and Conditions or other terms of use set by the Company,

Article 27 (Artificial Intelligence Learning Data and Crawling)

1. The Company does not permit the use of automated tools (robots, macros, spiders, scrapers, etc.) for all content and online services provided through Donga.com, and all content distributed on external platforms.

2. If you use the content and online service content provided through Donga.com for artificial intelligence (AI) learning data, you must first agree with the company. In particular, for commercial purposes, you must follow a legal contract with the company. Even for public interest and non-profit purposes, you must obtain the company's consent.

3. If the AI learning data and crawling, etc. that you have not agreed with the company constitute infringement on the ownership of the data and the copyright of the content and service, the company may take measures such as criminal charges, civil claims for prohibition of crawling, and civil claims for damages against the site operator who caused the damage.

Chapter 6 Compensation for damages and disclaimers

Article 28 (Compensation for damages)

The company shall not be liable for damages incurred by members in connection with services provided free of charge, except for damages resulting from the company's gross negligence. For paid services, separate provisions shall apply.

Article 29 (Disclaimers)

1. If the company cannot provide the service due to a natural disaster or other force majeure, the company shall be exempt from liability for the provision of the service.

2. The company shall not be liable for the reliability, accuracy, etc. of the information and materials posted by members on the service.

3. All responsibility for damages caused by carelessness in managing member ID and password and use, or unauthorized use by a third party, lies with the member.

4. If the member violates the provisions of Article 13 and other terms and conditions, and the company is held liable to the member or a third party and incurs damages to the company as a result, the member who violated these terms and conditions shall compensate for all damages incurred by the company and indemnify the company from such damages.

Chapter 7 Other

Article 30 (Protection of Youth)

In order to protect youth from harmful information and help youth use the Internet safely as a space that can be freely used by people of all ages, the company separately implements a youth protection policy as stipulated in the Information and Communications Network Act, and specific details can be checked on the service’s initial screen, etc.

Article 31 (Complaint Handling)

The company collects opinions and receives complaints from members regarding personal information through phone, writing, email, or the Internet homepage, and processes them.

1. In the event of a dispute regarding personal information, the company and members may apply for dispute mediation to the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee for quick and effective resolution of the dispute.

2. In the event of a lawsuit arising from the use of the service, the court with jurisdiction over the location of the company's headquarters shall be the court of jurisdiction.

Supplementary Provisions

(Revision Date) Effective from April 1, 2000.
(Amendment Date) Effective from September 1, 2000.
(Revision Date) Effective from December 7, 2001, with changes to Chapter 2, Article 4, and Chapter 3, Article 12.
(Revision Date) Effective from August 12, 2008, with changes to Chapter 3, Articles 11 and 12.
(Revision Date) Effective from September 27, 2021.
(Revision Date) Effective from August 31, 2022.
(Amendment Date) Effective from September 27, 2022.
(Amendment Date) Effective from August 23, 2023.
(Amendment Date) Effective from November 16, 2023.