Min Hee-jin, the former ADOR chief, appeared as a witness in the damages suit ADOR filed against Dolphiners Film over the unauthorized posting of a NewJeans music video.
The Civil Agreement Division 62 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Hyun-seok) held a hearing on the afternoon of the 11th in the damages suit in which ADOR sought 1.1 billion won from Dolphiners Film and Director Shin Woo-seok.
ADOR filed the suit in Sep. last year, saying that it was illegal for Director Shin, who produced the girl group NewJeans' "ETA" music video, to post a director's cut of the video on Dolphiners Film's own YouTube channel without consultation.
Appearing as a witness for Dolphiners Film, former chief Min answered a question about whether consent from Apple's advertising agency TBWA was needed to post the director's cut by saying, "The right to confirm rests with me," and added, "I was the CEO and producer at the time, so asking Apple would be strange."
Regarding ADOR's claim that posting the director's cut on the Dolphiners Film channel would reduce the company's YouTube revenue and cause damages, Min said it was "a foolish and absurd claim."
The court said, "Please refrain from such expressions," and stopped her. Min said, "No matter which channel it goes up on, the music revenue goes to ADOR, so I don't understand what damages there would be," and explained, "Rather, through the Dolphiners Film channel, it is opened to a wide range of consumers who are not our target audience, so ADOR benefits; it does not make logical sense."
ADOR, on the other hand, countered that matters related to the NewJeans music video are an important contract and therefore require written consent, and that it is hard to understand doing it through verbal consultation. It also argued that even if the post was taken down after ADOR's protest, liquidated damages should be paid.
Min called that "nonsensical," adding, "I think it is an abuse of the law to unilaterally draft a contract and then file a damages claim on the grounds that some part was violated."
She added, "All working-level staff make verbal contracts, so I wonder why HYBE (ADOR's parent company) is applying this yardstick only to Director Shin."
Meanwhile, ADOR also argued that it only requested suspension of posting for the "ETA" video and never demanded deletion or suspension of uploads for all videos related to NewJeans, such as the Ban Hee-soo channel, and said, "Director Shin is spreading false information."