As AI gets artsy, copyright holders get antsy

All it takes is uploading a photo and typing “Ghibli style.”

The world has been captivated by this simple interface, powered by OpenAI’s new image-generating model, ChatGPT-4o, unveiled on March 25.

It’s not just about images. In today’s era of generative AI, a single prompt can be enough to produce music and videos as well. The use of AI tools among content creators is growing rapidly.

In a YouTube video featuring mixed martial artist Choo Sung-hoon, background music with the AI-generated phrase “Yano Shiho is angry” plays in the background. On dancer Gabee’s YouTube channel, AI-generated backgrounds are frequently used during interviews. Viewers of web-based entertainment shows appear to have accepted AI-generated content as the norm.

AI Tools Redefine Creativity—and Copyright Boundaries

The wave of change has also reached film and television production.

“In art departments, we often use Midjourney for reference layering,” said a 54-year-old director surnamed Kang, with 25 years of experience in commercial film and TV. He noted that the technology helps avoid concerns over portrait rights and copyright infringement.

“They use Claude to analyze script structure or to fact-check legal and medical terminology,” said another director, aged 58 and with three decades in the industry.

Film festivals are also quickly adapting. Last July, the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival hosted a workshop on AI filmmaking and became the first in Korea to launch an international competition section dedicated to AI-generated films. CGV began accepting submissions for an AI film contest on March 17. Eligible works must be created either entirely or substantially with AI.

Industry Embraces AI While Legal Uncertainty Grows

Despite the growing number of use cases, legal discussions around copyright remain in their infancy. No clear global consensus has yet emerged.

“If this legal vacuum continues, creators may end up becoming both unwilling victims and perpetrators within the creative ecosystem,” said a representative of the Directors Guild of Korea.

This uncertainty has led to a cautious approach in the industry. In January last year, Netflix warned in its annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that generative AI could pose a risk, citing potential exposure to intellectual property lawsuits when using AI-generated materials.

In Korea, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Copyright Commission have jointly operated a working group on AI and copyright reform since 2023. Although the National Assembly passed a basic AI law last December, experts say it falls short in protecting rights holders.

“A glaring flaw is the absence of provisions requiring the disclosure of training data, which is essential for protecting rights holders,” said liberal Democratic Party Rep. Lim Oh-kyung, who is preparing a bill to amend the Copyright Act.

Global Rights Groups Push for Creator Protections

In contrast with Korea’s approach, the European Union’s sweeping AI Act, passed in August 2023, includes protections for creators. Under this framework, rights holders can demand fair compensation both when their work is used to train AI and when AI-generated content is utilized. They also have the option to withhold their copyrighted works from training.

Ricardo Gomez Cabaleiro, a member of the board of directors of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, also known as Cisac, who visited Korea on April 15 ahead of the organization’s general assembly in Bulgaria next month, told the JoongAng Ilbo that the EU is now fine-tuning its compensation framework.

Caballero said that the notion that protecting rights holders stands in opposition to economic growth is misguided. He said that the content industry has flourished on the foundation of copyright protection and creators’ groups must play an active role in shaping the rules for AI to coexist with cultural industries.

Video works, where copyrights are usually held by production companies rather than individual creators, face even greater risks in terms of protection. Currently, the Culture Ministry’s AI copyright reform working group includes representatives from the literature, music and journalism sectors — but not film. The ministry said that it selected rights-holder groups from genres with official collective management organizations.

Benjamin Ng, Cisac’s director of Asia-Pacific Affairs, said that film is a genre invented alongside technology, so its creators may have less bargaining power than those in other fields, adding that the gap will widen without legal and institutional support.

BY CHOI HYE-RI [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]