Newspaper Association Demands Companies Using AI to Write News Pay Copyright Fees

by Kim Dongpyo

Published 22 Aug.2023 17:05(KST)

Updated 22 Aug.2023 17:08(KST)

Announcement of '5 Requirements for Preventing News Copyright Infringement'

Major domestic and international companies developing artificial intelligence (AI) are using news content without permission, and there are claims that fair compensation should be paid to copyright holders.

[Image source=Pixabay]

On the 22nd, the Korea Newspaper Association (Chairman Lim Chae-cheong) announced, "We delivered the 'Five Demands to Prevent Copyright Infringement of News by Generative AI' to major domestic and international IT companies such as Naver, Kakao, Google Korea, and MS today."

In its statement, the Newspaper Association argued, "Generative AI development companies are widely infringing copyrights by using news content produced through massive investment and numerous refinement processes by news organizations without prior consent from copyright holders or indicating the source of the learning data, thereby damaging the value of news content."

The association also stated, "Institutional improvements are necessary to establish a copyright protection foundation suitable for the digital media era, including future AI technology development," adding, "It is urgent to protect news copyrights in the rapidly changing digital environment, such as preventing unauthorized database (DB) creation of news content."

Furthermore, the association officially demanded five items from generative AI companies: ▲ Establish a compensation system to pay appropriate fees to copyright holders for news works ▲ Consult with news copyright holders on usage standards for AI technology utilization ▲ Publicly adopt the World Association of Newspapers' 'Global AI Principles' to protect news copyrights ▲ Disclose the sources, content, and routes of AI learning data ▲ Specifically specify the usage methods when using news content for AI learning.

Regarding AI companies' claims that "the use of news content for generative AI development falls under 'fair use of copyrighted works (Article 35-5)' under copyright law," the association rebutted, stating, "It does not qualify as fair use." The association argued, "News content is a creative work in itself," and "Since the entire or substantial parts of news content are used for AI learning, and generative AI significantly negatively impacts news content creation, it does not fall under fair use."