Forum to tackle copyright rules for AI-assisted music

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, lawmaker's office and music rights groups hold first discussion on human creative contribution standards

A poster for the forum on establishing trust registration standards for AI-assisted music. [Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]

As the use of generative AI in music creation continues to spread, a forum has been organized to discuss copyright trust registration standards for such works.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the office of Assembly member Kim Jae-won, and the K-Music Rights Groups Mutual Prosperity Committee — comprising the Korea Music Copyright Association, the Together Music Copyright Association, the Recording Industry Association of Korea, the Korea Popular Music Industry Association, the Korea Music Performers' Union, and the Korea Entertainment Producers' Association — will hold the "Forum on Establishing Trust Registration Standards for AI-Assisted Music" at the National Assembly Members' Office Building on Tuesday.

The event marks the first public forum at which creators, the music industry, experts and policy institutions will openly exchange views on issues surrounding the trust registration of AI-assisted music.

The forum will focus on "Current Status of AI Music Use and Standards for Judging Human Creative Contribution." Kim Hye-chang, head of the policy research division at the Korea Copyright Commission, will present copyright registration standards for generative AI works and overseas case studies. Seol Ji-hye, an attorney at law firm Hwawoo, will outline proposals for revising trust registration rules at music copyright organizations.

A panel discussion moderated by Sogang University Professor Park Jun-woo will follow, with participants including Kim Chan-wook, chairman of the Korea Music Publishers Association; Shin Ji-young, CR leader at Kakao Entertainment; Lee Jong-pil, chief executive of Newtune; and Park Tae-yong, professor of culture and arts at Seokyeong University. An open question-and-answer session will gather views from those in attendance.

The K-Music Rights Groups Mutual Prosperity Committee has been pursuing joint initiatives to reshape the music copyright order in the AI era since its launch in February.

The committee's work has centered on five areas: the joint adoption of an AI music identification program, the establishment of an integrated K-Music code database, a research project on revising AI copyright law, a research project on revising AI royalty collection rules, and a research project on revising broadcast royalty collection rules — alongside efforts to build the underlying technology and data infrastructure and the legal and regulatory framework to support them.

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