Dolphiners Film, the advertising production company that directed music videos such as NewJeans' "Ditto" and "ETA," appealed the first-trial ruling it lost against ADOR.
According to legal sources on the 21st, Dolphiners Film the previous day filed a notice of appeal with the Seoul Central District Court Civil Agreement Division 63 (Presiding Judge Lee Kyu-young).
Earlier, on the 13th, the court ruled in a 1.1 billion won damages lawsuit filed by ADOR against Dolphiners Film and Director Shin Woo-seok, saying, "Dolphiners Film must pay ADOR 1 billion won and 12% annual delay interest on that amount." However, it dismissed the claim for damages against Shin personally.
The conflict between the two companies began in Aug. 2024, when Dolphiners Film released the director's cut of the NewJeans "ETA" music video on its own YouTube channel without ADOR's consent.
Director Shin Woo-seok said that he had received a request from ADOR to delete the video and deleted all NewJeans-related videos posted on the unofficial fandom channel he ran, "Ban Hee-soo Channel." During this process, criticism from NewJeans fans toward ADOR grew louder.
ADOR countered, saying, "We only requested that posting of the 'ETA' director's cut video be stopped; we did not ask for deletion of or a halt to uploading all videos related to NewJeans," and added, "Director Shin is spreading false information."
In response, Shin filed a complaint, saying ADOR's statement describing a "director's cut unauthorized release" defamed him, and ADOR countered by suing Dolphiners Film for damages, saying, "It is illegal to release NewJeans videos owned by the company without permission."
At the third hearing held in Nov. 2024, former ADOR chief Min Hee-jin, who appeared as a witness, testified that there had been prior verbal consent to release a separate director's cut of the "ETA" music video.
Dolphiners Film also filed for a stay of compulsory execution with the court the previous day. It is interpreted as an attempt to prevent the plaintiff from initiating provisional execution procedures for damages at any time.
Provisional execution is a system that allows the winning party to enforce the judgment in advance even if the ruling is not final. It aims to expedite realization of the winning party's rights while preventing the losing party from appealing solely to delay compulsory execution. In judgments ordering payment of money, such provisional execution is generally pronounced in addition.