South Korea’s music industry wages war on AI copyright abuse
A coalition of South Korea’s leading music industry organisations has declared war against AI copyright infringement.
AI is sweeping across the music industry, across the entire globe. Companies, industry bodies, and creators have voiced outrage and dissatisfaction around unethical AI training models and the use of copyrighted works without rightsholders’ permission in various territories. Now, South Korea’s music industry is furiously rolling up its sleeves.
Six major music organisations in the country have joined forces to address the issue head-on. The newly formed coalition, called the K-Music Rights Organization Mutual Growth Committee, was officially launched last month on the 26th of February and brings together groups representing songwriters, performers, labels, producers, and music companies.
According to Music Business Worldwide, the organisations have declared a “state of emergency” for the music sector and described their efforts as a “declaration of war” against AI copyright infringement.
The coalition includes the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), Korea Recording Industry Association (RIAK), Korea Entertainment Producers Association (KEPA), Together Music Copyright Association, Korea Music Performers Association (KOSCAP), and the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA).
KMCA represents many of the biggest players in the industry, with council members including HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment, Sony Music, Warner Music, Universal Music, and Kakao Entertainment.
The launch of the committee came just one day after Lee Si-ha was elected as the 25th president of KOMCA. Lee, a musician known for his work with Korean band The Cross, has also been appointed as the coalition’s first chairperson. Speaking about the urgency of the situation, Lee said, “The upcoming two years are a golden time that will determine the life and death of South Korea’s music industry.” He went on to explain, “Individual responses cannot stop the massive wave, which is why the six organisations have joined hands. We will establish the copyright management system we have built as a global standard, enabling Korea to lead the global copyright order.”
The official press release outlines that, as part of its launch, the coalition signed a joint declaration titled “In the AI era, we declare the noble sovereignty of human creation.” The statement commits the organisations to defending creators’ rights in the face of what they describe as the growing influence of “big capital and algorithms”.
The declaration also sets out three key demands aimed at AI companies and policymakers. First, AI developers should not be allowed to train their systems using copyrighted material without the creator’s permission. This is something that artists and industry bodies have been protesting for in the US and UK already. Second, there must be transparency around how AI-generated content is produced. Finally, the industry wants clear standards that distinguish human-made works from those created by AI.
Beyond policy demands, the coalition also has broader ambitions for how music rights could be managed in the future. One of its plans involves building a blockchain-based infrastructure that connects different rights identification systems. These include the International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC) for compositions, the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) for recordings, YouTube’s Content ID system, and South Korea’s Universal Content Identifier (UCI).
By linking these identifiers into a single framework, the coalition hopes to create a system capable of tracking music usage and distributing royalties in real time. The committee has referred to this idea as a potential “K-Copyright Standard Model.”
South Korea has already taken steps to address AI in music before this coalition was formed. Last year, KOMCA introduced a rule requiring songwriters to confirm that AI was not used in the creation of a work when registering it. If AI was used but the creator falsely claims otherwise, the organisation can withhold royalty payments or remove the work from its system entirely.
South Korea’s latest move highlights how seriously it is taking the issue of AI, and demonstrates its fierce protection of human artists, and fairer crediting and acknowledgement.