Culture Ministry to Host International Copyright Technology Conference... Discuss Copyright Protection in AI Era

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said it will hold the 2026 International Copyright Technology Conference (ICOTEC) on Nov. 4 at JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul, in collaboration with the Korea Copyright Commission and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency.

Launched in 2011, the International Copyright Technology Conference is being held for the 16th time this year. The event introduces the latest copyright technologies from Korea and abroad and discusses related issues. This year, under the themes of “Transparency in Generative AI” and “Protecting Rights in Training Data and Copyright Technology,” participants will focus on new rules for the AI creative ecosystem and ways to protect rights. The event will be livestreamed online through the Korea Copyright Commission’s official YouTube channel.

Professor Lee Sang-wook of Hanyang University will deliver a keynote address on “Rethinking Creativity and Copyright in the Age of Generative AI.” Garrett Levin, senior intellectual property legal and policy officer at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), will then discuss the foundations of copyright and directions for international technological cooperation in the age of generative AI.

Two breakout sessions will follow. The first, on “Transparency in Generative AI,” will examine technical standards for improving the reliability of AI-generated content and ways to apply them in industry. Professor Kim Seong-ung of Korea University will introduce watermarking technology that embeds identifying information in AI-generated content, while Andy Parsons, a senior director at Adobe, will explain ways to ensure the reliability of digital content. Manager Jang Hak-seong of SK Telecom will present ways to promote transparency through an “AI Bill of Materials (AI-BOM),” which records information about data, models, software, and other resources used to develop AI.

The second breakout session, on “Protecting Rights in Training Data and Copyright Technology,” will discuss ways to protect creators’ works from unauthorized AI training and resolve copyright disputes through technology. Lee Jong-pil, CEO of Newtoon, will discuss ways to indicate the sources of AI training data and establish a licensing framework. Professor Kang Sang-wook of Sangmyung University will introduce ways to resolve copyright disputes using “Machine Unlearning,” which removes specific training information from AI models, and knowledge distillation technology. Professor Kim Young-sik of the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology will present technology to prevent unauthorized AI training using adversarial noise and adaptive watermarking.

Awards will also be presented to those who have contributed to copyright protection and technological development. Professor Jung Hae-jun of Hanyang University will receive the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award; LG AI Research will receive the Chairperson of the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property Award; and Professor Kim Sang-pil of Korea University will receive the World Intellectual Property Organization Award. In the open-source software category, Kwon Young-hwan, a principal researcher at the Software Policy & Research Institute, will receive the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award.

Choi Young-jin, director general for copyright policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, “In an era of digital innovation where AI technology is changing rapidly, copyright technology is becoming increasingly important—not only to protect rights, but also to create a fair environment for the use of training data.” He added, “We will reflect the latest technological trends in Korea and abroad and the diverse views discussed at this conference in our copyright technology policy.”

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