South Korea's Music Copyright Body Bars 100% AI-Generated Songs From Registration

The Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) will enforce the country's first copyright registration guidelines for AI-assisted music starting Sunday, August 3, 2026. The rules draw a firm legal line between human and machine authorship, taking a hardline stance against fully AI-generated works — the industry's first institutional response to generative AI in Korean music.

What the new rules say

Under the guidelines, songs that are 100% AI-generated with no "substantial contribution" from a human will be entirely excluded from copyright registration. A track can only be registered and granted copyright protection if a human led the core creative work — songwriting, composition, or both.

KOMCA has also laid out enforcement measures for false filings: anyone found to have misrepresented a song's authorship will have to return any royalties already collected, and face sanctions including forced termination of their contract.

Why this matters

This is the first rule of its kind in South Korea, and it echoes a broader international trend — the U.S. Copyright Office and several European copyright bodies have similarly moved toward a stance of "limited protection" for AI-generated content. KOMCA manages licensing for the public performance, reproduction, and distribution of music works in South Korea, so its approach has a direct impact on the K-pop production ecosystem. Organizers have not yet announced further detailed criteria for determining human-AI creative contribution.