Kpop news: Allegations of BTS chart manipulation resurface; court documents reveal illegal marketing
KPop News: Regarding the suspicion of past music chart manipulations by the group BTS, Big Hit Music under the agency Hive said, “‘Inappropriate marketing’ is only a one-sided claim,” but the court and investigative agency at the time ruled out ‘sound chart manipulation,’ ‘illegal marketing,’ ‘hoarding marketing,’ etc. It was confirmed that it was specified as.
According to the ruling and evidence in the case, Chief Judge Seong Bogi of the Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Division 3 sentenced Mr. A, who was indicted on charges of joint blackmail, to one year in prison in August 2017.
In the case, Mr. A told agency officials in January 2017, “We have data on illegal marketing. He came under fire when he sent an email saying, “If you don’t pay me, I will distribute related materials to the media,” and extorted a total of 57 million won on eight occasions.
kpop news: Mr. A is said to have committed this crime after the company he ran was mobilized for BTS’ online marketing and was in financial trouble.
When this fact became known, it was pointed out that BTS may have committed illegal marketing activities such as music manipulation, and Big Hit Music issued a statement and denied such suspicions. KPOP NEWS
kpop News:
At the time, Big Hit Music said, “The inappropriate marketing activities mentioned in the criminal’s threats and threats are one-sided claims by the criminal, and expedient marketing refers to typical online viral marketing.” “Mr. It has nothing to do with.
“The amount of damage was also inevitably incurred in the process of the person in charge personally attempting to resolve the issue in order to protect the artist’s image.”
At the same time, “As a result of immediately reporting the facts as a victim of blackmail and actively cooperating during the investigation, if the company’s one-sided claim that it engaged in inappropriate marketing activities was reported as true and its image suffered greatly, I will proudly face such blackmail incidents in the future. “There will be no entertainment company that can respond,” he said.
Kpop news: Although Big Hit Music has denied the allegations of chart manipulation surrounding BTS, the court has stated the contrary.
The court said, “Mr. A and others disguised themselves as third parties who had obtained data on the fact that ‘illegal marketing’ had been carried out by hiding their identities and hacking emails against the company for which they had carried out marketing work.” He said, “We sent an email saying, ‘We have all the information about illegal marketing of our celebrities,’ and scared the victim.”
Kpop news: BTS Illegal marketing
During the investigation and trial, Mr. A claimed that he committed the crime alone, but the court did not acknowledge this and said, “Mr. B (an employee of Mr. A) received a fine from Mr. “I admit that I participated in the crime by providing my younger brother’s bank account and withdrawing the extorted money, even though I knew it was extortion,” he said.
In addition, the court said, “Mr. A received 57 million won from the victim by lying that the illegal marketing materials of a celebrity (BTS) belonging to an entertainment agency for which he had performed marketing work had been hacked and he was being threatened.” He said, “This is a very serious crime, as it was committed by abusing the secrets I learned about my business partners.”
At the same time, the ruling ruled, “We took into account the fact that the victim was at fault for using an expedient marketing method to provide an excuse for blackmail, and that the actual financial damage was limited to 42 million won.”
In other words, contrary to the agency’s position, the court accepted the fact that Mr. It was acknowledged that it was related to ‘hoarding marketing’. kpop News
In addition, the court pointed out that Big Hit Music also provided an excuse to Mr. A through ‘illegal marketing’, which is interpreted to have influenced Mr. A’s sentencing.
Jong-eon Noh, the CEO of the Being Law Firm, said, “In this case, ‘illegal marketing’ means ‘(sound recording) hoarding marketing,’ and it was stated in the ruling because the court determined that such a factual relationship existed.”
Kpop News: BTS manipulation Chart
In the case of music hoarding, it is clearly defined as an illegal act. Article 26 of the ‘Music Industry Promotion Act’ stipulates that in the case of the production, import or distribution of music records, music video products, etc. for the purpose of increasing sales of records, etc. The act of unfairly purchasing music or having a related person buy it unfairly is considered music hoarding. Violation of this may result in imprisonment of up to 2 years or a fine of 20 million won.
Representative lawyer Noh Jong-eon said, “Calling ‘music recording hoarding’ as viral marketing is no different from saying that something illegal is legal.” He added, “The fact that there has been no criminal punishment for music hoarding cannot serve as a basis for legality, and Mr. A’s ruling In the case of , it is clearly determined that there was music hoarding marketing.”
Hive has announced legal action regarding allegations of BTS’ music hoarding. Big Hit Music said, “We have recently detected a number of organized moves to defame and slander BTS,” and added, “We have already made an official statement in 2017 and it is the same.”