South Korea\'s parliament passed amendments to the Game Industry Promotion Act to strengthen overseas game firms\' responsibility to protect domestic users. The changes spell out criteria for appointing a domestic agent and require firms to train, monitor and maintain the agent while providing services. The law also adds duties for game-related businesses to protect users from harm and handle complaints, and expands authorities\' power to request data and impose fines.

South Korea\'s Game Rating and Administration Committee said on Aug. 3 it blocked 1,450 illegal private servers in the first half of this year. It said 32,930, or 70.7 percent, of its 46,531 administrative actions in the period focused on eradicating illegal private servers and illegal programs. Requests for investigations rose to 49, up 14 cases from a year earlier, it said.