Min Hee-jin's testimony was nullified, and the court ruled in favor of ADOR.
ADOR partially won the first-instance damages suit it filed against Dolphiners Film and director Shin Woo-seok, who posted the girl group NewJeans' music video on their YouTube channel without the agency's consent. Former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin testified in person, but the court determined that a "contract" was more important than a 'verbal agreement'.
On the 13th, the civil division 62 of the Seoul Central District Court (presiding Judge Lee Hyun-seok) partially ruled in ADOR's favor in the damages suit it filed against director Shin Woo-seok and Dolphiners Film, ordering Dolphiners Film to pay ADOR 1 billion won.
The court recognized 1 billion won of the 1.1 billion won in damages ADOR sought, acknowledging 1 billion won for breach of contract, but dismissed the 100 million won claim filed individually against director Shin Woo-seok.
In the lawsuit over posting rights for NewJeans content, both sides clashed strongly over four court hearings. At the third hearing held in November last year, former CEO Min Hee-jin appeared as a witness and testified that there was a verbal agreement to the effect that "it is generally allowed in the industry for a music video director to post the video on their own social media."
Earlier, in September 2024 ADOR filed a civil suit claiming that Dolphiners Film had posted the director's cut of NewJeans' "ETA" music video without consultation, seeking damages for breach of contract and unlawful acts.
ADOR said, "The director's cut of 'ETA' that Dolphiners Film posted on its own social media channel was an edited work that included parts where there were disagreements with the advertiser, and it was posted without consultation with the advertiser," and noted, "The copyrights to NewJeans' music video and all related works are contractually owned by ADOR and therefore should be posted on the company's official channels."
After the unauthorized posting controversy erupted, Dolphiners Film deleted not only the video in question but also all NewJeans videos they had posted on the unofficial fandom channel they operated called "Ban Hee-su channel." Director Shin Woo-seok also expressed regret while filing a criminal defamation complaint against ADOR.
At the time, ADOR said, "We cannot tolerate actions that violate our contract with ADOR or infringe ADOR's intellectual property rights," and added, "It is very regrettable that director Shin Woo-seok, while offering no response to the civil suit, instead filed baseless criminal complaints against ADOR's management."
[Photo] OSEN DB.
[OSEN]