Korea's Music Copyright Society Withdraws Its New AI Music Registration Rules

The Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) has withdrawn a set of newly drafted reporting and registration standards that would have allowed songs made with artificial intelligence to be registered as copyrighted works, saying it will instead rebuild the criteria through consultation with the cultural sector, the National Assembly and the government. The reversal leaves Korea’s largest music rights organization — and the songwriters it represents — without a settled answer to one of the industry’s most contested questions: how much machine involvement a song can contain and still earn royalty protection.

A Rulebook Shelved Before It Took Hold

KOMCA had prepared formal criteria under which works created with AI assistance could be reported and registered with the association, a step that would have brought such music into the royalty collection and distribution system it administers on behalf of its members. That framework has now been pulled back. In announcing the withdrawal, the association said it would discuss the matter with the broader cultural community rather than press ahead unilaterally, and that registration standards would be re-established together with the National Assembly and the government.

The retreat is notable because registration is the gateway to money. A song that cannot be registered with KOMCA sits outside the association’s collection apparatus for broadcast, streaming, performance and other uses. Any rule that defines when an AI-assisted track qualifies therefore functions, in practice, as a rule about who gets paid — which is precisely why the association’s attempt to write one drew scrutiny.

Why the Question Is So Hard to Settle

KOMCA has been wrestling with AI-generated music for some time. The association had earlier taken a restrictive line, asking creators to affirm that works submitted for registration were made without AI involvement — a stance that reflected anxiety among human songwriters about machine-made tracks diluting the royalty pool. Moving from that posture to a framework that formally admits AI-assisted works, however partially, represents a significant policy swing, and the whiplash appears to have been part of the problem.

The underlying legal terrain is unsettled. Korean copyright law, like most jurisdictions’, protects works of human authorship, and the government has yet to legislate a clear standard for hybrid creations in which a person directs, edits or builds upon AI output. A trust management organization writing its own admission criteria ahead of that legislative work risked creating a de facto national standard without a statutory foundation — and without buy-in from composers, lyricists and publishers whose income depends on how the line is drawn.

What the Withdrawal Changes for Creators

For now, songwriters working with AI tools are back in limbo. There is no approved pathway to register an AI-assisted work with KOMCA, and no published threshold for how much human contribution suffices. Creators who have quietly incorporated AI into their workflows — for demo generation, arrangement or sound design — face continued uncertainty about whether disclosing that use could jeopardize registration.

The association’s stated plan to involve the National Assembly and the government suggests the next version of the rules will be tied to a broader policy process rather than issued as an internal association standard. That is likely to slow things down, but it also raises the odds that whatever emerges will carry legal weight beyond KOMCA’s own membership, potentially shaping how other Korean collecting societies and platforms treat AI-assisted content.

The Stakes Beyond One Association

Korea’s music industry is an export engine, and its handling of AI authorship will be watched by rights holders abroad who license Korean repertoire and by the platforms that distribute it. Collecting societies in other markets are confronting the same problem — how to keep pace with tools their members already use, without eroding the human-authorship principle on which copyright rests. KOMCA’s decision to step back and route the question through lawmakers is a bet that legitimacy is worth the delay. Whether creators can afford to wait is the question the association has yet to answer.