The Korea Music Copyright Association on the 23rd came under sharp fire from both ruling and opposition parties at the National Assembly Culture. Sports. and Tourism Committee's audit over allegations of bloated management and conflicts of interest. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said it would "hold the association clearly accountable for its wrong practices."
Lawmakers from both parties pointed out the state of KOMCA's operations that day. Park Jeong-ha of the People Power Party said, "Even though KOMCA is the nation's largest copyright trust agency with 55,000 members and annual collections of 400 billion won, its public interest and transparency have collapsed," adding, "Executives used association funds like personal money."
Park also listed signs of lax expenditure. Park said, "Executives sat on more than 13 committees and received 50 million to 60 million won a year in the form of meeting stipends," adding, "Under the chair's 'dignity maintenance expenses,' even beauty costs and 25,000 won for necktie cleaning were paid." Consecutive payments at golf courses and a case of spending 12 million won over two days at a liquor store were also pointed out.
The closed nature of the organization's operations also drew controversy. Park said, "There are 55,000 members, but only regular members can run for chair, and regular members number only about 900, or 1.7%," adding, "It is a structure that maintains a specific electoral college."
Kim Jae-won of the Rebuilding Korea Party raised "conflict of interest suspicions." Kim said, "KOMCA, which is subject to review, has been paying consulting fees to former and current Commissioners of the Korea Copyright Commission (KCC), the reviewing body," pointing out, "How is that different from a judge taking money from a defendant?"
According to disclosed materials, about 600 million won has been paid since 2023 through this year under the pretext of "copyright policy research consulting." That amounts to about 30 million won per person per year. Claims also emerged that many of them worked simultaneously at the Copyright Commission and the Copyright Protection Agency.
In response, Kang Seok-won, Chairperson of the Korea Copyright Commission (KCC), said, "It is true that the pool of experts in the copyright field is not sufficient, but since Commissioners serve on a part-time basis, it is not desirable to restrict outside activities," while adding, "We will review the reasons for each major matter and carefully ensure that conflict-of-interest concerns do not arise."
Jeong Hyang-mi, Director General at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), said, "We have been issuing corrective orders since 2018, but there were legal limits to intervening in overall organizational operations," while adding, "We will prepare appropriate measures for the wrong practices of agents entrusted with creators' property rights who have forgotten their duties and devise safeguards to prevent recurrence."