"Why Didn't They Pay Royalties for Han River Works?"... Munjeohyeop Says "We Didn't Know the Contact Information"

Munjeohyeop "Did not provide contact info, so could not give" Absurd Explanation
Advance Collection, Then Distribution... Unfair Compensation Process
Rep. Kim Jaewon "Immediate Action Needed"

Novelist Han Kang. [Source=Yonhap News]

The Korea Literature and Arts Copyright Association (hereinafter referred to as Munjeohyeop) has been revealed to have never paid copyright compensation fees for the works of novelist Han Kang, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

According to a report by Hankook Ilbo on the 17th, the office of Assemblyman Kim Jaewon of the Party for National Innovation stated, "Munjeohyeop has never paid copyright compensation fees for the works of a certain author used for textbooks, class purposes, or class support purposes." In response, Munjeohyeop explained, "To distribute compensation fees, the rights holders' personal information and consent to receive are required. Since 2017, we have been notifying this through publishers, but we could not deliver the compensation fees because we could not obtain the contact information of the author Han." Currently, Munjeohyeop lists 34 cases of Han's works usage on its website (11 for textbooks, 4 for class purposes, and 19 for class support purposes).

Han Kang is not the only author who has not received copyright compensation fees. It has been confirmed that over the past 10 years, a total of 10.487 billion KRW in compensation fees has not been paid to authors. If compensation fees remain unclaimed for five years, the association may use them for public interest purposes with the approval of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Accordingly, the association has used approximately 13.8 billion KRW in compensation fees over the past decade. Of this, 2.52 billion KRW was spent on improving the compensation distribution system, 4.04 billion KRW on copyright usage surveys, and 740 million KRW on copyright holder promotional campaigns.

The fundamental cause of this problem is known to be the unreasonable compensation procedure. According to the Copyright Act and related laws, for works included in textbooks, copyright fees are compensated retrospectively through a compensation receiving organization designated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Munjeohyeop). Therefore, a structure was formed where publishers collect copyright fees in advance and then redistribute them to the copyright holders, meaning that authors must apply directly to receive compensation fees. However, from the authors' perspective, it is not easy to identify where their works have been used unless Munjeohyeop actively informs them.

Assemblyman Kim said, "Munjeohyeop's explanation that they did not pay copyright fees because they did not know the contact information of author Han is very absurd." He added, "Copyright compensation is a system to protect authors' rights and support their creative activities, but Munjeohyeop neglecting this and focusing only on increasing their own profits is a serious problem," and emphasized, "Immediate measures are needed so that copyright holders can receive fair compensation."