Actor Park Seo Jun is suffering from negative comments despite being a victim of an infringement of his portrait rights due to some who have distorted the essence of the matter.
On the 3rd, it was reported that Park Seo Jun won a damages lawsuit against Mr. A, a restaurant owner in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, receiving a ruling for 5 million won. However, it was an incomplete victory. This is because defamatory comments about him continue to flood his social media as well as some online communities.
The controversy began in 2018. At that time, Park Seo Jun was starring as the male lead in the popular tvN drama "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim?" A scene was filmed in which Park Seo Jun ate crab in a real restaurant, and the restaurant owner was Mr. A. Later, he used the scene from the broadcast to create a banner for advertising.
Mr. A not only used the scene from "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim?" but also utilized expressions like "a restaurant that even Park Seo Jun loved" in advertisements. As a result, the restaurant was known as not only the filming location of the drama but also a real "Park Seo Jun restaurant." This is different from how restaurants that appeared on broadcasts are typically known as "filming locations." However, Mr. A did not correct this and continued to operate online search ads for about six years in addition to using the banners.
In relation to this, Park Seo Jun's agency, Awesome ENT, explained to OSEN, "We have been requesting the cessation of banner and advertisement postings since 2019. However, the ads were taken down and then put back up, and afterwards, they continued to ignore our requests to take them down, leading us to initiate a lawsuit."
What Park Seo Jun's side raised against Mr. A was damages due to the infringement of his portrait rights. There was also debate about the scale of the claimed amount. It was wrongly reported that Park Seo Jun claimed 6 billion won in damages from Mr. A, a small business owner. However, the 6 billion won was merely the estimated loss calculated by Park Seo Jun's side and not the claimed amount.
In the case of top stars like Park Seo Jun, the revenue earned from not only performance fees but also from advertising shoots is substantial. For this reason, the portrait rights and name rights in unnecessary advertising materials are calculated in detail. Consequently, the estimated loss, formally taking into account the advertising model fees for Mr. A's promotional materials, was shown to be 6 billion won.
However, considering Mr. A's scale of business and other circumstances, they filed for 60 million won as the amount of damages. Even so, while the court acknowledged Mr. A's infringement of portrait rights, it only recognized 5 million won in damages, taking into account that he was a small business owner. Moreover, Park Seo Jun's request for an 'injunction against infringement' was dismissed on the grounds that the promotional materials had already been removed.
Ultimately, despite suffering damage due to the infringement of his portrait rights for six years, it appears that some internet users are pouring secondary abusive comments towards Park Seo Jun. Just as there should not be impunity for the wealthy while the poor suffer, while the gap between the rich and poor may be considered, it should not affect the motives of acts or the nature of the crime.
Amid this, can the defamation against Park Seo Jun be overturned? Awesome ENT stated, "We have confirmed that secondary abuse, mocking, and defamation are being carried out even against the legitimate judgment. We plan to respond to acts that infringe on our agency's actor's portrait rights and personality rights without leniency or compromise."
[Photo] OSEN DB.
[OSEN]