Korean Directors Call on Congress for Urgent Reform of the Author’s Rights Law
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Renowned South Korean film directors, united in the Directors Guild of Korea, warn that the current legal framework prevents audiovisual authors from receiving income from the exploitation of their works on OTT platforms and call for a structural reform that guarantees patrimonial rights and residual payments.
In a powerful video released publicly, South Korean directors and screenwriters—including Dong Hoon-Choi, JK Yoon, July Jung, Heon Seok-Baek, Joon-Ik Lee, Hae-Young Park, and Joon-Ho Bong—addressed Congress to expose the critical situation faced by audiovisual creators amid the rapid growth of OTT platforms.
The message is clear: while Korean content has consolidated itself as a global phenomenon and generates multi-billion revenues—with figures exceeding 1.5 trillion won in the domestic market and billions in revenue for platforms such as Netflix—filmmakers receive no proportional economic participation from the exploitation of their works.
At the core of the claim is the legislation currently in force in South Korea, which establishes that, unless otherwise agreed, patrimonial rights are transferred to the producer. In practice, this means that screenwriters and directors receive an initial payment but no subsequent participation in the profits derived from international circulation or streaming.
At the same time, Korean audiovisual authors have received strong support from directors and screenwriters from other parts of the world, including Martijn Winkler, director and board member of the Directors Guild of the Netherlands (DDG); Bill Anderson, president of the Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA); Duncan Crabtree , from Ireland, National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator of SAG - AFTRA and Horacio Maldonado,Secretary General of Audiovisual Authors International Confederation (AVACI).
In the video, the Directors Guild of Korea warns that this situation puts the sustainability of the Korean audiovisual ecosystem at risk. The material highlights that other territories have already advanced protection mechanisms: in the United States, residual payments have existed since the 1950s as a result of union action, and in 2023—after the historic strike by writers and actors—improvements were incorporated into the remuneration scheme for streaming platforms.
Meanwhile, in the European Union, the 2019 DSM Directive guarantees remuneration rights in the digital environment. The video concludes with a categorical message: without reform of the author’s rights law, there will be no sustainable future for the Korean audiovisual industry.
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