“Publishers in China, Japan and India seem to be moving to enter Korea in earnest by pushing AI-assisted web novels,” said Kwon Tae-wan, CEO of KW Books. “They translate with AI and then have professional translators review it, and they plan to export large volumes of e-books. But we can’t get into those markets.”
“In the literary world, there’s a lot of discussion about how to protect authors’ creative works,” said Hong Young-wan, chairman of the Korea Publishers Association.
The comments came April 27 at the second meeting of the Publishing Subcommittee of the Culture and Arts Policy Advisory Committee, held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, where participants discussed ways to revitalize the publishing market.
Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young and subcommittee members reviewed progress on proposals raised at the first meeting and debated future policy directions.
Several participants said artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the publishing business.
Kwon said lower production barriers enabled by AI are prompting publishers in Japan, China, India and the United States to export not only best sellers but also titles with moderate sales potential to Korea. “AI-produced and AI-translated content is coming into Korea quickly,” he said.
He added that the web novel industry had managed to endure a difficult past one to two years largely because Korea, as the genre’s originator, benefited from rising overseas revenue. He said that edge could shrink.
Concerns about copyright infringement tied to AI were also raised. Hong said the issue is highly contentious and views may differ by field, calling on the ministry to prepare broader discussions.
Choi said the ministry would work to create guidelines and build consensus on what uses of AI are acceptable.
The meeting also covered book-purchase support through the Youth Culture and Arts Pass, ways to introduce tax credits for publishing content production costs, and the size of government support for publishing.
Hong said the association’s policy discussions and input from 13 publishing company heads indicated more than 400 billion won is needed for publishing support. He said current support is about 60 billion won, far less than the 86 billion won each allocated to film and games.
Hong also argued that money collected from penalties should bolster publishing support, citing the Fair Trade Commission’s recent decision to impose about 330 billion won in fines on six paper companies over alleged price collusion. He said the publishing industry bore losses from the collusion but has no way to be compensated. “We don’t know how much of the 300 billion won in penalties the FTC will actually collect, but if it isn’t reflected in a publishing fund, it’s an ineffective policy,” he said.
Choi said he would discuss how to handle publishing industry damage confirmed in the case, including through fines and other measures.
Calls were also made to support exports of children’s books. Kim So-young, CEO of Munhakdongne, referred to the musical ‘Long Long Night’ that President Lee Jae-myung recently watched, saying children’s storybooks tend to export well when linked with performances. She said policy support is needed, including legal advice on copyright and help with licensing rights.
The Culture and Arts Policy Advisory Committee, launched in November last year under the culture minister, has nine subcommittees covering literature, theater and musicals, fine arts and other fields.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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