Composer Ishihara Announces Candidacy for KOMCA President: "I Will Usher in an Era of Doubling Copyright Royalties"

Distribution of 900 Billion Won in Undistributed Royalties,
AI Compensation to Be Included in Member Pensions

Composer Ishihara. Provided by Ishihara Camp

Ishihara, a board member of the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), has officially announced his candidacy for the 25th presidential election of the association. He is the composer of the hit song "Don't Cry" and a member of the rock group The Cross. Recently, he raised the need for reform by exposing issues such as the middleman exploitation of Chinese copyright fees and the non-collection of copyright fees by online video service (OTT) platforms during a National Assembly audit.

On the 21st, through a written statement, Ishihara said, "While serving as a current board member, I confirmed structural corruption and suspicions of misconduct among senior officials that I was unaware of as a regular member," adding, "Because repeated calls for reform have been ignored by the board, I decided to step forward myself." His campaign slogan is "The Real KOMCA We Want."

His first pledge is to strengthen the transparency of the association. He promised to overhaul the controversial spending structure, including suspicions of artificial intelligence (AI) corruption among senior officials, 8.5 billion won in executive compensation over nine years, and a monthly 20 million won in business expenses for the president. He proposed the following: full disclosure of the president's assets, copyright fees, and business expenses before and after taking office; public release of board meeting videos; introduction of a mid-term evaluation system for the president in the second year of the term; reduction of the president's authority to appoint committee members; and abolishment of the awards ceremony before the general assembly.

His second pledge is to establish a member-centered operational system. Ishihara announced plans to introduce an O/X remote voting system at the general assembly, create a direct complaint channel called "Consultation Talk" for the president, implement a professional management system, and lower commission fees on copyright royalties. He also pointed out the problem of 66% of the welfare budget being concentrated on just 1.7% of full members, pledging, "By reducing unnecessary advertising expenses, I will increase the pension for full members aged 65 and older to between 700,000 and 1 million won."

His third pledge is to substantially increase copyright royalties. He promised to raise streaming royalties by 1.5 times, overhaul overseas collection systems in regions such as China, the Middle East, and South America, fully collect unpaid OTT royalties, establish a copyright royalty system for platform-based albums such as photo cards and NEMO albums, and distribute approximately 900 billion won in undistributed royalties during his term.

Responding to the era of AI is also included in his pledges. Ishihara stated, "A portion of AI companies' revenue will be paid to members as 'AI compensation,'" citing the German music copyright association GEMA's legal victory against OpenAI as an example. He also pledged to introduce AI systems into the association's work to improve efficiency and to establish a system for distinguishing between AI-created and human-created works by making it mandatory to submit project files.

Ishihara said, "I will prove myself through action, not fame," adding, "As a secretary and worker for the members, I will dedicate myself for four years to create a clean association and achieve a real increase in copyright royalties."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.