# 인격 침해



## Flooooooooor

Hi all,

From the Wikipedia definition of copyright infringement:

저작권 침해는 저작권자의 허락 없이 저작물을 이용하거나 저작자의 *인격을 침해하는* 방법으로 저작물을 이용하는 것이다.​
From this article about recent steps taken by tech companies to mitigate the harm done by cruel comments on the internet:

카카오 관계자는 이번 조치만으로는 악플 문제를 근본적으로 해결할 수 없다면서 온라인에서 누군가의 *인격이 침해되는* 일이 없도록 또 다른 대책도 마련할 계획이고, 이용자들도 뜻을 같이해주길 바란다고 강조했습니다.​
This is strange to me. Until now, I have seen *인격* used to refer to someone's personality or character, which when used as an object can have things done to it such as being evaluated, praised, criticized, selected for, defamed, respected, built, honed, and so on. Meanwhile, the verb *침해하다* I have understood until now to refer to violating and invading, as in what can be done to someone's rights, privacy, or freedom. Given these two word senses, the verb-object pair seems a little odd to me -- what would it mean to "violate" someone's "character"? -- and I cannot put my finger on exactly what is being expressed here. My closest guess is that this has something to do with defamation or damaging someone's character as it is perceived by others -- but then again, why use *침해하다*, which to me conjures a sense of crossing some physical/legal/moral boundary and "violating", instead of a word like *모독하다*? Or is this simply an expression that means "causes harm to someone" but breaks down when you look at its constituent parts to derive a meaning?

Thank you for any help on this.
​


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## Taehun

Hi Floooooooor.

I think you pointed rightly that '침해하다' has legal or moral senses, and I think the very this fact explains why '인격' can be said with '침해' or '침해하다'. Because in some cases '인격' can be put in legal contexts like your quotations. Following is one of the explanations from dictionary.

[법률] 권리 능력이 있고, 법률상 독자적 가치가 인정되는 자격
'권리 능력' means the legal qualifications to be the subject of *rights*

So in some cases '인격' has something to do with the matter of rights(especially rights of someone's personality)

But as a korean speaker, I can say that we do use more the words '인권 침해', '인격 모독'.
(* I confess that the word '인격침해' seemed strange for me at first. So your question is also mine)
but I guess, because the former(인권 침해) seems to have much broader meaning than '인격 침해' by covering other issues than personality, and the latter(인격 모독) could be used even in normal (not legal) cases, the word '인격 침해' was coined. (*just guess) 

Anyway your understandings about the words '침해하다', '인격', '모독하다' are very correct and I think even many native koreans might have a similar question or strange feelings about the word '인격 침해'. 

Lastly I just wanna let you know that though '인격 침해' are used to refer some legal cases, in fact it is not a technical term used in law codes. We use '명예훼손죄' and '모욕죄', whose words-formaiton might not, I hope, go across your understandings.

Good luck!


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## lkjhg811

There is no English word whose meaning is exactly the same as that of a Korean one.
The word "인격" doesn't mean exactly "character".



> which to me conjures a sense of crossing some physical/legal/moral boundary and "violating",


Yes, I agree.


> is this simply an expression that means "causes harm to someone"


Yes, I agree.


> breaks down when you look at its constituent parts to derive a meaning?


I'd say not


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## Flooooooooor

Thank you Taehun and lkjhg911 for your thoughts! I think I have a better sense of the usage of this phrase and will keep an eye out for more usages in the future.


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