Award ceremony held for the 2nd Korea Music Copyright Association Paper Competition, with themes of ”Music Copyright” and ”Generative AI and Music Copyright”

The Korea Music Copyright Association (KMAA) held the 2nd Korea Music Copyright Association Paper Competition Awards Ceremony at Glad Yeouido in Seoul on Wednesday, October 2, 2024.
The awards ceremony was held in order to seek the direction of the music copyright industry in the rapidly changing music creation environment, protect the rights of creators, and expand the base of copyright-related research in Korea.
The paper exhibition was held over a period of about 90 days from May to August, with the themes of "Music Copyright" and "Generative AI and Music Copyright."
After a fierce judging process, the final ten winners were selected. The music copyright-related free topic category was awarded to Im Chung-kwang's "The copyrightability and reliance of musical works on copyright infringement judgment theory."
The paper dealing with relationship and substantial similarity in the generative AI-related category dealt with the use of generative AI data and copyright disputes, focusing on the fair use and compensation of Koo Moon-mo's musical works.
The papers were awarded the Grand Prize, while two other Excellence Prizes and six Encouragement Prizes were awarded, garnering attention for their creative research on protecting the rights of music creators and the latest issues related to copyright.
In particular, at the awards ceremony, a performance was given calling for the mandatory disclosure of AI learning data, in response to the copyright issues that have arisen from the fusion of music creation and AI technology, which has become an issue in the music industry recently.
At the awards ceremony, Choo Ga-yeol, president of the Korea Music Copyright Association, said, "This exhibition is a great opportunity to promote research into generative AI, which has become a hot topic recently, and to bring together various academic fields in the field of music copyright.
The Society will continue to support research and education in the field of music copyright and continue to work hard to promote the positive development of the music industry.
In his congratulatory speech, Shin Dong-Wook, a member of the National Assembly from the People's Power Party, said, "I believe that the basis of national competitiveness lies in how well we protect creators and their works.
The right corresponds to appropriate compensation for creative works by society and a means to protect the rights of creators from infringement such as plagiarism. Recently, the time has come when creative works must be protected from AI, and the Diet
However, there are many concerns, and we would like to take measures to protect creators and their works through AI."
It is important not to end the discussion on the results of the awards ceremony's academic papers, but to improve awareness of copyright through close communication with the music industry and to work closely with the field, including music copyright.
"We will do our best to implement policies to protect the rights of creators and improve the creative environment," he said. Rep. Kim Jae Won of the National Assembly from the Fatherland Reform Party also sent a written congratulatory message saying, "I am very grateful for the support of the government in promoting generative AI and audio.
Research on music copyrights is a very important topic that responds to the changes and challenges of our times, and the issue of how to balance copyright and technological development is becoming more important than ever.
"The awardees' research will contribute greatly to shaping the future of the music industry," said Benjamin S.
In his congratulatory speech, Ng also said, "Compared to the global popularity of Korean culture, the current copyright laws to protect creators in the AI era have not kept up with that level.
Further research and attention is needed to ensure that Korea's cultural industry can continue to grow, and policies and legislation must be introduced to balance the interests of human creators and the development of AI companies.
The winning essays in this contest will be made public on the Korea Music Copyright Association's website and made available for public viewing.
The funds will be used for policy research on revising copyright laws and protecting creators' rights.