South Korea’s National Assembly holds first public forum on AI-assisted music trust and registration; human contribution is the axis

Lead: first National Assembly forum on trust standards. Not in force

On the morning of 22 September 2026, the first public forum on trust standards for AI-assisted music was held in the main conference room of the National Assembly Members’ Office Building in Seoul. It was hosted by Rep. Kim Jae-won’s office (Rebuilding Korea Party), organised by the K-Music Rights Organisations Coexistence Committee, and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST). Newspim, on the 21st, previewed it as the first public discussion of trust, collection, and distribution standards for generative-AI music. It is not an enacted statute or a CMO rule now in force.

Background: KOMCA’s August standard was withdrawn

On 3 August the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) published a standard that would have allowed trust registration only for the parts of lyrics, composition, or arrangement in which a human took a substantial, leading role. Yonhap says prompt-only automatic outputs were excluded, and filers would have had to record the AI area, tool name, method, and human contribution, and submit process evidence on request. MCST sent an official letter that broader arts-sector debate was needed, and the policy was fully withdrawn. Sportal Korea (Newsis, 22 September) reports KOMCA will align with cross-sector institutionalisation while keeping the principle of excluding 100% AI-generated works with no substantial human contribution. Newspim says MCST will continue follow-up forums, including royalty-distribution standards.

What this changes for producers

For commercial BGM headed to YouTube, games, or streaming that may later need Korean CMO registration or distribution, the fact that moved is not whether generation is allowed. It is which human steps you can evidence. This is still a forum and a proposal set. It does not decide Japanese copyright. Not legal advice.

• Kim Hye-chang, head of policy research at the Korea Copyright Commission, used controllability and predictability as the axis and drew a line: prompt-only outputs are outside copyright. Contribution may be recognised when the creator’s own work is input and creative expression appears in the output; when independent modification or expansion of the output is itself creative; or when selection, arrangement, or composition has independent creativity. Typos, trivial size or colour changes, and cases with no identifiable independent expression do not qualify (Yonhap / Sportal). That maps to production notes: own source material, post-output edits, and selection or arrangement.
• Ji-hye Seol of YOON & YANG proposed excluding 100% AI generation and registering only the lyric, composition, or arrangement parts where human contribution can be verified. Sportal says she also proposed safeguards: principal verification, internal review linked to detection, and — for intentional or grossly negligent false reporting — contract termination or a penalty of up to three times amounts improperly received. Yonhap writes that the withdrawn KOMCA draft also had a basis to suspend collection and distribution on suspected false reports or 100% AI, and an up-to-3× penalty for intentional or grossly negligent false reporting. Treat both as a forum proposal or a withdrawn CMO draft, not a live penalty clause.
• Professor Park Tae-yong of Seokyeong University told Yonhap that prompt logs, revision and re-creation logs, and per-track stems should be standardised disclosure fields. If Korean trust is a future path, today’s session logs are the evidence candidates.
• Shin Ji-young, CR lead at Kakao Entertainment, told ZDNet that AI-assisted tracks have entered charts and settlement and rights queries have increased, but with no standard the platform cannot make an ad-hoc call. ZDNet also quotes her calling 100% AI mass distribution a form of abuse. Check the distributor’s AI declaration fields and how you would split registration by part.

Sources

Newspim (21 September 2026, event preview); Yonhap (22 September); Sportal Korea / Newsis (22 September); Pressian (21 September preview); ZDNet Korea (22 September). Not a statute. Clickable URLs are at the end.