South Korean music groups declare war on AI copyright theft

Six heavyweight music organizations just banded together in South Korea, declaring a full-blown state of emergency over generative AI's threat to creator rights.

K-Music coalition declares war on AI infringement

• Six major South Korean music bodies formed a unified coalition.
• HYBE, SM, JYP, YG, and the three global majors sit on KMCA's council.
• The group literally calls this a declaration of war against AI.
• Lee Si-ha chairs the committee after his KOMCA election.

Three core demands anchor the coalition's platform

• Unauthorized AI training without creator consent must be banned.
• Mandatory transparency in AI generation processes is required.
• Clear standards separating human and AI-created works are demanded.
• Lee frames the next two years as existential for Korean music.

Blockchain-powered rights tracking is the tech play

• A unified infrastructure links ISWC, ISRC, Content ID, and UCI codes.
• Real-time royalty tracking and distribution is the ultimate goal.
• Fragmented rights data across separate organizations gets consolidated.
• The committee brands this its K-Copyright Standard Model.

Four overlapping crises triggered the emergency

• Generative AI's rapid spread tops the threat list.
• Blockchain-based decentralization adds structural pressure.
• Korean Wave revenues keep leaking to overseas entities.
• Platform market restructuring compounds everything further.

KOMCA already cracked down on AI-made submissions

• Creators must guarantee that no AI was used when registering works.
• False claims can trigger royalty withholding or content deletion.
• Fully AI-generated works cannot receive copyright in South Korea.
• Human-created portions within AI-assisted works may still qualify.