'IU Plagiarism Suspicion', Responsible Person Appointed

Regarding the suspicion of singer IU's plagiarism, Cho Young-cheol, the current CEO of Mystic, who was in charge of album production at the time, spoke out.

On the 12th, Jo Young-cheol posted a long message on his SNS, saying, "As a producer who was responsible for the production of IU's previous albums, I thought I should reveal a few things."

He said, "I monitored all the songs that had recently been accused of plagiarism and continued to claim plagiarism on YouTube, etc. However, I could not find any suspicion of plagiarism. Just because I looked at only part of the song and the melody and chord development sounded similar, it is not plagiarism. This is a personal matter. “It’s not an opinion, it’s a court precedent,” he said.

He also conveyed his position regarding the ‘Pink Shoes plagiarism suspicion’. The song under suspicion is 'Here's Us' by the German band NEKTA. Jo Young-cheol said, "I saw an article saying that the German band NEKTA contacted them regarding plagiarism, but did not receive any response. This is different from the truth. At the time, Nectar's legal representative sent an email to Loen Entertainment (formerly IU's agency), and Loen Entertainment and its legal representative responded and delivered an email and official document confirming the basic facts. However, “It ended because they did not provide any further response in this regard.”

Currently, IU is being accused of plagiarism for a total of 6 songs. Including ‘Pink Shoes’, they include ‘Good Day’, ‘Bippi’, ‘Pity’, ‘Boo’, and ‘Celebrity’. However, this was reported by a third party, not the original author. In response, Cho Young-cheol emphasized, "Copyright disputes are basically a problem between the copyright holders. It is questionable whether a third party has the right to file a complaint or report. If it is malicious defamation, they will definitely have to take legal responsibility for it."

This incident is already a controversy that arose in 2013. It would be difficult to give an accurate explanation of the situation at the time after 10 years. Attention is being paid to whether the claims of the record manager will be the key to changing the current situation.

The important point is that, regardless of the controversy, IU has suffered 'mental pain' from some groups. Malicious posts about IU continued for several years through YouTube and communities. Some people are expressing sympathy for this incident, saying, "It's nothing more than a witch hunt," and "This is the second Tajinyonya."

Reporter Junho Yoon, Ten Asia delo410@tenasia.co.kr