Priority Settlement of Unpaid Amounts Based on Current Collection Regulations Under Copyright Law
"Specific Calculation Criteria and Grounds to Be Discussed Upon Future Negotiations"
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The OTT Music Copyright Countermeasures Council (OTT Eumdaehyeop) announced on the 4th that it has decided to pay the usage fees for music works to the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) according to the current collection regulations.
OTT Eumdaehyeop is an organization jointly formed by online video service (OTT) providers such as Wavve, TVING, and Watcha to negotiate music usage fees recently.
The music usage fees that OTT Eumdaehyeop decided to pay this time were calculated according to Article 24 of the "Music Works Usage Fee Collection Regulations," which pertains to retransmission services of broadcast content. This does not mean that the fee negotiation with KOMCA has been finalized and payment decided.
OTT Eumdaehyeop explained, "If KOMCA comes to the negotiation table, we will discuss appropriate standards for calculating copyright usage fees and specific calculation grounds. However, this decision was made to resolve the ongoing situation where dialogue with KOMCA has not progressed and non-payment continues."
Currently, KOMCA demands that domestic OTT providers either accept the 2.5% rate set as the music works usage fee or, if not, suspend their services, claiming that the providers are using music without paying usage fees.
OTT Eumdaehyeop counters by presenting negotiation principles for setting copyright fees: ▲the calculation method must be reasonable (rationality), ▲applicable to all users within the industry (universality), and ▲acceptable to both rights holders and users (acceptability).
Hwang Kyung-il, chairman of OTT Eumdaehyeop, stated, "There must be negotiations on appropriate usage fee standards for the development of the entire content industry and the benefit of both rights holders and users."
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