Copyright disputes in the music market have intensified first because a new environment, with the spread of smartphones and the growth of online distribution, is rewriting the rules. Another reason is that copyright protection was strengthened with the implementation of the Korea-U.S. and Korea-EU free trade agreements, raising awareness of copyright, including legal use of music files. But the biggest reason music copyright disputes continue in Korea is the complexity of domestic rights and the one-sided way usage fees are set. Korea's Copyright Act itself is not especially complicated, but the copyright issues involved in actually running a music service are so complex that even experts find them hard to grasp; there were even reports that Samsung Electronics, which had already run music services abroad, put off its domestic launch. Even an article by a specialist reporter described the Korea Music Copyright Association, which manages authors' economic rights in trust, as also managing moral rights and the right to make derivative works, so it is hardly surprising that musicians with little awareness of copyright find it hard to protect their rights.

Public awareness of copyright and of the need to protect it has improved considerably, but users still often use works without permission because they do not clearly understand the scope of copyright. First, the culture ministry and related agencies should gather the views of experts and organizations to present realistic policies, and the National Assembly should promptly revise the law so that institutional changes do not cause confusion. As music consumption has shifted to digital files, amendments to the Copyright Act suited to the online era are being prepared, but conflicts among stakeholders and between the ruling and opposition parties have delayed their passage, only adding to the confusion.

To add: the August 2017 amendment to Article 11 of the Enforcement Decree of the Copyright Act broadened the scope of performance rights, so that from August 23, 2018 coffee shops and other non-alcoholic beverage outlets, beer bars and other pubs, fitness centers, multi-purpose shopping malls and other large stores must also pay performance fees (performance royalties and performance compensation) when they play commercial recordings. Businesses under 50 square meters and traditional markets are exempt. The paper's 'amendment on large stores' and its 2014 article describe the situation before this change. The rights of lyricists and composers (copyright) are distinct from those of singers and record producers (neighboring rights), and authors' economic rights are in principle protected for 70 years after the author's death.