Breaking News: Korea Blocks AI-Generated Books From Library Deposits

Authored by en.sedaily.com and submitted by runhome24

The constitutional amendment bill is introduced at a plenary session held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 7th, with People Power Party lawmakers absent. Reporter Oh Seung-hyun

A partial amendment to the Libraries Act, which excludes "one-click publications" produced in short periods using generative artificial intelligence (AI) from library legal deposit requirements, passed the National Assembly's plenary session on Wednesday.

Under current law, even AI-produced publications are subject to the legal deposit system, under which the National Library of Korea and the National Assembly Library pay compensation and hold the materials in their collections. The increase in AI-generated publications aimed at collecting these compensation payments has been cited as a problem, leading to budget waste.

The amendment allows the director of the National Library of Korea to refuse legal deposit of AI publications following deliberation by the Library Materials Review Committee. It also establishes a legal basis for the government to recover legal deposit compensation obtained through fraudulent means.

DramaticGuesswork420 on May 7th, 2026 at 19:00 UTC »

FUCK YEAH! I hope we get something similar in Canada too. Carney did say, "AI for all", but that's not preventing OpenAI being investigated for breaking our laws, and Tumbler Ridge rightfully suing them. Investigations don't seem to often amount to much, but I can dream...

DrBoots on May 7th, 2026 at 11:21 UTC »

If I'm understanding the article correctly. 

The current system sees the national library paying publishers/writers for their work as they are introduced into the collection. 

Previously this included Ai generated books which are now exempt from payment or at least can be put up for review to cease and recoup payments? 

That seems like solid policy to me. 

Invisiblecurse on May 7th, 2026 at 11:11 UTC »

The same should be implemented worldwide