Generative artificial intelligence developers and copyright holders in South Korea now have a new government guide on when copyrighted works may be used fairly to train AI models.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Copyright Commission said Thursday they will publish a guide titled “Copyright Law Fair Use Guide for Generative AI Training on Works” (the “fair use guide”). It will be available from 11 a.m. on the commission’s website.
The guide explains four factors considered when judging fair use in the context of generative AI training, including the purpose and character of the use and the type and use of the work. It also says AI training is not automatically excluded from fair use even when done for commercial purposes or through web crawling — the automated collection, sorting and storage of website content — and that decisions require an overall assessment of the factors.
To help readers understand the concept, the guide presents hypothetical examples of situations where fair use could be recognized and where it would be difficult to recognize. The ministry and the commission stressed the examples are not authoritative interpretations, and that courts will determine fair use based on specific facts. Even similar situations could lead to different rulings.
The ministry and the commission said they began preparing the guide after forming a special subcommittee under an AI-copyright system improvement consultative body in September last year. They conducted a survey of AI developers and rights holders from Oct. 13 to Nov. 2, held interagency consultations for about three months starting in November, and released a draft at a public briefing on Dec. 4. They said they reviewed and reflected feedback and expert discussions gathered during the comment process.
The government said it will strengthen policy support so rights holders and the AI industry can better anticipate and respond to copyright issues that may arise as generative AI spreads and training data use expands.
At a meeting held Thursday morning at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon, and National AI Strategy Committee Vice Chair Lim Moon-young agreed to work together on institutional improvements and support programs aimed at coexistence between the AI and cultural industries.
The culture ministry said it plans to build a foundation for providing and distributing rights information so users can verify accurate copyright rights-management information and, when needed, sign licensing agreements. The goal is to reduce transaction costs involved in identifying rights holders for training data.
The science ministry said it will link a copyright rights-information system with private data marketplaces through an integrated AI training data supply system. It also plans to promote transactions in works used as training data, including applying research and development tax credits to the cost of purchasing AI training data.
The culture ministry also said it will strengthen the basis for expanding the use of public works as AI training data. It added new categories “Type 0” and “AI Type” to the Public Nuri free-use license marking standards and said it will work with relevant ministries to broaden application of the new categories to public works managed by each ministry and agency.
Choi said the guide will be updated to reflect new court decisions and technological developments. “We will continue to do our best so that protecting creators’ rights and the lawful use of works by AI models can remain in balance,” he said.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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