Six domestic music rights organization heads, including Lee Siha, president of the Korea Music Copyright Association, have joined forces to protect copyright in the AI era.
Judging that the global music industry is facing unprecedented upheaval amid the rapid expansion of generative AI, Chair Lee proposed an emergency convocation to each music rights organization. As a result, on the 26th of last month, the heads of six music rightsholder organizations gathered in one place and officially launched the ‘K Music Rights Organizations Co-prosperity Committee (hereinafter, the Co-prosperity Committee)’. It is a declaration that, rather than being passively dragged by technological change, they will design a new music copyright order for the world to follow.
Participating in the Co-prosperity Committee are six organizations that support the domestic music ecosystem: the Korea Music Copyright Association (President Lee Siha) ▲ 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 Federation (President Lee Jung-Hyun) ▲ the Korea Music Content Association (Chairman Woo Seung-Hyun). Lee Siha, president of the Korea Music Copyright Association who spearheaded this alliance, was elected as the committee chair.
The Co-prosperity Committee characterized the current situation as a state of emergency in which the ‘Four Major Crises’ overlap: the spread of generative AI, blockchain-based decentralization, outflow of Hallyu revenues overseas, and a restructuring of the platform market. It unveiled an aggressive survival strategy not limited to policy proposals: South Korea will seize ‘copyright management technology’ itself and become the global market’s ‘rule maker’.
At the core of the strategy is ‘building a blockchain-based integrated infrastructure’ that binds dispersed rights data into one. They plan to secure foundational technology that links the four key codes: works (ISWC), sound recordings (ISRC), YouTube (CID), and the national identification system (UCI), into a single data structure. Through this, they aim to complete a ‘K-copyright standard model’ that can track·collect·distribute every single use in real time without missing any, 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 task force, establishing a single negotiation channel, and creating a joint fund. The aim is to move beyond the limits of individual responses and build a solidarity framework through an integrated strategy.
At the launch ceremony that day, a signing of the ‘Co-prosperity Committee Declaration’ by the six organization heads also took place. The leaders personally signed a declaration titled “In the AI era, we declare the noble sovereignty of human creation,” expressing their intent to defend the rights of creators against massive capital and algorithms. The declaration contains demands for establishing new standards for the AI era, including: ▲ prohibiting 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.
Committee Chair Lee Siha emphasized, “The next two years are the golden time on which the fate of the South Korean music industry depends,” and added, “Because individual responses cannot stop the massive tide, the six organizations joined hands. We will establish the copyright management system we have built as the global standard and make Korea lead the global copyright order”.
