Generates content with AI, in South Korea

Copyright Act of the Republic of Korea, Arts. 4, 16, 18, 20, 22, 101-2, 101-4, 101-5, 123, 125 and 136 · Read the law's page

• Treat a computer program work as a work the Act protects (Article 4(1)(9)); the Act does not protect the programming language, protocol or algorithm used to prepare a program (Article 101-2).
• Obtain the author's permission to reproduce a work, transmit it in public, distribute its original or copy, or produce and use a derivative work based on it (Articles 16, 18, 20 and 22).
• If you use a program with legitimate authority and cannot easily obtain the information needed for compatibility, you may decompile its program codes without the rights holder's permission, limited to the part necessary for compatibility, and you may not use the information obtained for another purpose, provide it to a third party, or build substantially similar programs from it (Article 101-4).
• If you possess and use a copy of a program with legitimate authority, you may reproduce the copy to the extent necessary to provide against its destruction, damage or deterioration (Article 101-5(1)).
• Expect to be asked to stop an infringing act and, where the infringement was intentional or negligent, to answer for damages; the profit you gained is presumed to be the damages sustained (Articles 123(1) and 125(1)).
• Infringing author's economic rights by reproduction, performance, public transmission, exhibition, distribution, rental or production of derivative works is punishable by imprisonment with labor for up to five years or a fine not exceeding 50 million won, or both (Article 136(1)(1)).

Arts. 48-3 and 48-4 of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, Etc. (Act No. 20069, Jan. 23, 2024) · Read the law's page

• Immediately report a computer security incident to the Minister of Science and ICT or to the Korea Internet and Security Agency upon discovering it; a report already made for the same incident under another statute satisfies this duty and need not be repeated.
• A person who operates an information and communications network, a provider of information and communications services included, must analyze the cause of the incident, respond based on the results of that analysis, and take measures to keep the resulting damage at bay (Article 48-4(1)).
• Preserve data when the Minister of Science and ICT orders it, and submit on the Minister's demand the data needed to analyze the incident's cause; submitting false data or refusing to submit it is separately finable, and failing to preserve data after an order to do so is a criminal offense (Article 73, item 6).
• The reporting and data duties below bind a provider of information and communications services, the Act's own broad term for a person who, for profit, provides information or acts as an intermediary in providing information using a telecommunications business operator's services, with no revenue or user threshold gating these duties; a separate certification duty in this Act binds only a designated information and communications service provider identified by revenue or user count and is not raised here. The cause-analysis duty in Article 48-4(1) reaches any person who operates an information and communications network, a provider included.

Public Official Election Act, Articles 82-8, 255(5) and 261(3) · Read the law's page

• Do not produce, edit, distribute, screen or post a deepfake, meaning an AI-made virtual sound, image or video that is hard to distinguish from the real one, for election campaigning from 90 days before election day through election day.
• At any other time, label a deepfake you produce, edit, distribute, screen or post for election campaigning, as the National Election Commission Rules prescribe, so that people clearly recognize it as virtual information made with AI.

Act No. 20676, Article 31 · Read the law's page

• Notify users when content they see was produced by generative AI

Act No. 20676, Article 32 · Read the law's page

• If your AI system was trained using cumulative compute of 10^26 floating-point operations or more, applies the most advanced AI technology currently in use, and could broadly and seriously affect people's life, physical safety or fundamental rights, identify, assess and mitigate risk across the system's full life cycle.
• Build a risk-management system that monitors and responds to AI-related safety accidents involving your system.
• Submit the results of implementing those two measures to the Ministry of Science and ICT, in the form and manner the Ministry sets by public notice.
• The Act states no duty to report a particular safety accident to the Ministry, and no period running from the moment you become aware of one.

Act No. 20676, Article 36 · Read the law's page

• If you have no address or business office in Korea and meet one of the Enforcement Decree's thresholds (prior-year revenue of KRW 1 trillion or more, prior-year AI-service revenue of KRW 10 billion or more, an average of 1,000,000 or more daily Korean users over the last three months of the prior year, or a past fine for ignoring a stop or correction order under the Act), designate a domestic representative in writing and report the designation to the Minister of Science and ICT.
• Choose a representative that has an address or business office in Korea.
• Authorize the representative to submit your Article 32(2) results, to request the Minister's confirmation that your AI is high-impact, and to support your Article 34(1) safety and reliability measures, including checking that the documents are current and accurate.

Presidential Decree No. 36053, Article 23 · Read the law's page

• Before you offer a product or service that uses high-impact or generative AI, tell users that it runs on that AI: state it on the product or in a contract, manual or terms of use, show it on the user's screen or device, post it where the product or service is provided, or use another method the Minister recognizes.
• Mark AI-generated output either in a way people can perceive or in a machine-readable way, and where the mark is machine-readable also tell users at least once, in text or voice, that generative AI produced the output.
• Give the notice or indication for virtual sound, image or video that is difficult to distinguish from reality in a way the user can clearly recognize, taking account of the main users' age and physical and social conditions.

Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods, Article 8(1)(11) · Read the law's page

• Not yet in force: from November 27, 2026, do not advertise a food or related product using AI-generated virtual sound, images or video, difficult to distinguish from reality, that could make people believe a doctor, dentist, oriental-medicine doctor, veterinarian, pharmacist, herbal pharmacist, university professor or other related expert guarantees, recommends or uses it.

Cosmetics Act, Article 13(1)(4) · Read the law's page

• Not yet in force: from November 27, 2026, do not advertise a cosmetic using AI-generated virtual sound, images or video, difficult to distinguish from reality, that could make people believe a doctor, dentist, oriental-medicine doctor, veterinarian, pharmacist, herbal pharmacist, university professor or other related expert guarantees, recommends or uses it.

Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, Article 68(7) · Read the law's page

• Not yet in force: from November 27, 2026, do not advertise a medicine or related product using AI-generated virtual sound, images or video, difficult to distinguish from reality, that could make people believe a doctor, dentist, oriental-medicine doctor, veterinarian, pharmacist, herbal pharmacist, university professor or other related expert guarantees, recommends or uses it.