From left: Lee Jeong-hyun, President of the Korea Music Performers Association; Woo Seung-hyun, Chairman of the Korea Music Content Association; Lee Si-ha, President of the Korea Music Copyright Association; Lim Baek-woon, President of the Korea Entertainment Producers Association; Han Dong-heon, Chairman of the Together Music Copyright Association; Park Seong-min, Manager, Korea Record Industry Association. Provided by the Korea Music Copyright Association

Upon taking office, Lee Si-ha, head of the Korea Music Copyright Association, launched his first official move: a ‘declaration of war on the AI era’.

He judged that the global music industry is facing unprecedented upheaval amid the rapid expansion of generative AI, and proposed an emergency convocation of music rights organizations. As a result, on February 26, the heads of six music rights-holder organizations gathered to officially launch the ‘K-Music Rights Organizations Co-Prosperity Committee (hereinafter the Committee)’. It is a declaration that, rather than being passively led by technological change, they will design a new music copyright order for the world to follow.

Participating in the Committee were six organizations that support the domestic music ecosystem, including the Korea Music Copyright Association (President Lee Si-ha); ▲ the Korea Record Industry Association (President Choi Kyung-sik); ▲ the Korea Entertainment Producers Association (President Lim Baek-woon); ▲ the Together Music Copyright Association (Chairman Han Dong-heon); ▲ the Korea Music Performers Association (President Lee Jeong-hyun); ▲ the Korea Music Content Association (Chairman Woo Seung-hyun). Lee Si-ha of the Korea Music Copyright Association, who led this coalition, was elected as the Committee chair.

Lee Si-ha, head of the Korea Music Copyright Association, speaks at the K-Music Rights Organizations Co-Prosperity Committee.

The Committee defined the current situation as a state of emergency where the ‘four major crises’ overlap: the spread of generative AI, blockchain-based decentralization, outflow of Hallyu revenues overseas, and restructuring of the platform market. It unveiled an aggressive survival strategy to go beyond mere policy proposals and have Korea seize ‘copyright management technology’ itself to become the world market’s ‘rule maker’.

At the core of the strategy is ‘building a blockchain-based integrated infrastructure’ that unifies dispersed rights data. They plan to secure foundational technology that links, in a single data structure, the four major codesworks (ISWC) ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code): an international standard identification code assigned to musical works (composition, lyrics, etc.), sound recordings (ISRC) ISRC (International Standard Recording Code): an international standard identification code assigned to audio (sound recordings), YouTube (CID) CID (Content ID): the YouTube content identification system, a digital tracking system that recognizes audio and content in uploaded videos to identify rightsholders, and the national identification system (UCI) UCI (Universal Content Identifier): a unique identifier assigned under the national integrated content identification system to integrate the management of works and related information. Through this, they aim to complete a ‘K-copyright standard model’ that tracks, collects, and distributes every single use in real time without missing a case, thereby securing leadership in the copyright market.

To realize this, the six organizations agreed to speak with one consistent voice by forming a joint AI response TF, establishing a single negotiation channel, and creating a joint fund. In short, they aim to build a solidarity framework through an integrated strategy that goes beyond the limits of individual responses.

At the inauguration ceremony, a signing for the ‘Committee Declaration’ joined by the six heads was also held. The leaders personally signed a declaration titled “In the AI era, we declare the noble sovereignty of human creativity,” stating their intention to defend the rights of creators against big capital and algorithms.

The declaration includes demands to establish new standards for the AI era, such as ▲ banning unauthorized AI training without the consent of creators ▲ mandating transparency in AI generation processes ▲ institutionalizing a clear distinction between human-created works and AI-generated outputs.

Chair Lee Si-ha emphasized, “The next two years are the golden time on which the survival of the Korean music industry depends,” adding, “Because individual responses cannot stop the enormous wave, six organizations have joined hands. We will establish the copyright management system we have built as a global standard so that Korea leads the global copyright order.”

Starting with this launch, the Committee will move into a regular meeting system and will swiftly embark on designing an integrated platform and on institutional improvement tasks.