Hwang Seong-woon, Director of the Planning and Coordination Office of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, announced key business plans during a pre-briefing session for the 2025 Ministry’s work report at the Government Complex Seoul’s annex in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 8th. The government is set to establish legislation concerning artificial intelligence (AI) copyright. This year, it plans to revise the ‘Copyright Act’ to protect creators and foster a synergy between the AI industry, and also to push forward the enactment of the ‘Publicity Rights Act.’
The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has released its main business plan for 2025, which includes expanding cultural support for economic recovery, promoting regional balanced development through culture, fostering growth and exports in content, tourism, and sports, creating a new future culture, and engaging globally with Korean culture.
The ministry plans to advance the AI copyright system as a major task under ‘creating a new future culture.’ Hwang Seong-woon stated, “We aim to proactively respond to the rapid development and everyday integration of AI by revising the Copyright Act and pursuing the establishment of the Publicity Rights Act within the first half of the year.”
To begin, the ministry will push forward revisions to the Copyright Act with obligatory disclosure of data lists used for AI learning, as these provisions were not included in the AI Basic Act passed by the National Assembly at the end of last year. They plan to build on discussions from the AI-Copyright System Improvement Working Group, which has been operating for two years since 2023.
Furthermore, they plan to enact a law concerning the protection and usage of publicity rights (tentative name), given the continuous controversy over “publicity rights infringement” due to advancements in AI technology. This law is expected to regulate unauthorized use of someone’s traits for distribution, publication, or performance purposes.
A future strategy for the AI-era content industry (2025–2035) will also be formulated and announced in the first half of this year, including initiatives for fostering new industries through AI content development.
To enable a second leap for K-content, the government will expand funding options. This includes establishing a ‘Global League Fund’ worth 100 billion won to attract overseas investment and operating a 500 billion won ‘K-Content and Media Fund’ for large-scale investments. Cultural industry guarantees will be expanded to 220 billion won, covering every stage from content planning and production to distribution.
The Ministry will enhance export support for the content industry by increasing the number of overseas business centers from 25 to 30 and strengthening strategic export support in key areas such as China, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
In games, the Ministry will significantly increase support for console and indie games (from 12 billion won to 19.4 billion won), while continuing to resist the classification of gaming addiction as a disease.
Minister Yoo In-chon of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, “Despite difficult conditions, this year, we will vigorously push policies in culture, sports, and tourism to allow all citizens to enjoy culture in daily life and to achieve an early recovery of the people’s economy.”