Korean broadcasters sue Naver over unauthorized AI training on news articles
Three South Korean broadcasters sued Naver on January 14, 2025, alleging the company unlawfully used their news articles to train the AI systems HyperClova and HyperClova X without authorization or compensation. The broadcasters claim copyright infringement and violation of competition law.
What happened
KBS, MBC, and SBS sued Naver on January 14, 2025, alleging the company used their news articles without authorization to train the generative AI systems HyperClova and HyperClova X.
The Korean Broadcasting Association, representing the three broadcasters and 39 other terrestrial broadcast stations, filed the lawsuit claiming copyright infringement and violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.
Reported impact
The association sent an opinion letter in December 2023 to Naver, Kakao, and Google Korea stating that AI training use of news content requires separate compensation agreements and is forbidden without permission.
The broadcasters made two requests to Naver for compensation for news data use and measures to prevent future infringement, but reportedly did not receive clear responses.
Index analysis
The Korean Broadcasting Association stated it would sequentially file lawsuits against other big tech companies that use news data without permission, beginning with Naver.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.