The Incorporated Association Korea Music Performers Union (chairperson Lee Jung Hyun, hereafter KMPU) joined the international coalition launched to protect the rights of creators and performers in the AI era, the "Human Artistry Campaign," making a global move to protect the rights of music performers.
This participation is meaningful in that KMPU is the only domestic organization to have its name listed among the vast coalition of 189 prestigious arts organizations worldwide.
The "Human Artistry Campaign" was launched in 2023 by Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, which oversees the Grammy Awards, at South by Southwest (SXSW), the world's largest music festival. It is a global campaign to promote AI technology that supports and enhances human creativity and achievement, and currently arts organizations worldwide in music, audiovisual arts and publishing are participating. Starting on the 22nd, campaign advertisements will be published in major media outlets beginning with The New York Times.
The campaign presents core tasks to ensure AI does not infringe on human artistic expression, including limiting copyright protection for AI-only generated works, establishing the principle of prioritizing human creators' rights, and preventing rights violations from deepfakes. Harvey Mason Jr. was involved in the enactment of the "ELVIS Act" passed in Tennessee and led efforts to establish the first state-level U.S. legislation to protect artists' likenesses, voices and images.
When that bill was enacted, about 400 industry figures, including global top stars such as Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, Ben Stiller and Cyndi Lauper, along with actors, musicians, producers and media company executives, joined a supportive statement, drawing international attention.
KMPU is connecting this participation not only as declarative support but also to actual technology and systems. Through an ongoing national R&D project, it is technically implementing the campaign's principles and taking the lead in developing automatic detection technology for unauthorized deepfake performances and in establishing a fair compensation system for performers' rights.
Kim Seung-min, executive director of KMPU, said, "The goal is not to exclude or ban AI, but to clearly distinguish the scope of technology use and performers' rights," adding, "AI is only a tool that helps creation and performance, and the party responsible for compensation must remain the artist." He added, "We will take the lead in advancing systems and technologies so that creation and performance are recognized and protected as rights from the moment they are converted into data."
Meanwhile, since its founding in 1988, KMPU has been the only domestic music performers' collective rights management organization authorized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism under Article 105 of the Copyright Act to collect and distribute neighboring rights royalties for performers across all fields, including pop music, gugak and classical music.
[Photo] Provided by KMPU
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