Tightening AI Rules Amid Deregulation, Kospo Calls for Review of Moon-Era Guidelines

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's 'Generative AI Fair Use Guidelines' has met with strong opposition from the startup industry. The Korea Startup Forum (KOSPO) strongly urged a re-examination of the guidelines, stating that they could stifle the AI innovation ecosystem and weaken global competitiveness. It was pointed out that this directly contradicts the government's emphasized direction of AI deregulation. KOSPO pointed out three key problems. First, **excessive restrictions on commercial use**. Regarding the guidelines' classification of AI development for commercial purposes as an unfavorable factor in fair use judgment, KOSPO countered that the AI industry inherently premises commercialization from R&D, and trillions of won in private investment also pursues profit. It emphasized that the criteria should be whether new value is created from the original work and the threat of market substitution, rather than whether it is for commercial purposes. Second, **failure to adequately reflect AI technology characteristics and international practices**. KOSPO criticized the restrictive interpretation regarding the technical inevitability of using entire copyrighted works for AI training and web crawling. It expressed concern that this diverges from cases in major countries like the US, EU, and Japan, which actively recognize fair use for AI training, and would lead to a weakening of domestic companies' global competitiveness. Third, **it will lead to industrial contraction**. KOSPO warned that the restrictive interpretation would lead to structural risks such as reduced investment in AI startups, weakened global competitiveness, stagnation of public interest AI projects, and increased reliance on overseas AI markets. In particular, KOSPO pointed out a policy conflict between government ministries, stating that the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 'Act on Promotion of AI Utilization by SMEs,' which was proposed last month, and its TDM (Text and Data Mining) special provisions directly clash with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's guidelines. KOSPO emphasized that these guidelines are not merely simple directives but rather a real regulatory barrier that will determine the success or failure of Korea's AI industry, contradicting the national goal of becoming a leading AI nation. It warned that restrictive interpretations, contrary to the trend of regulatory rationalization, would lead to the stagnation of innovative companies and the weakening of future growth engines, and strongly urged a re-examination of the guidelines through seeking a balance between AI innovation and copyright protection.