Will ADOR and Dolphiners Films Face Legal Battle Over NewJeans’ “Ban Heesoo” Video Re-release?

As of September 11th, all 43 videos on the “Ban Heesoo” YouTube channel have been restored to public view.

Ban Heesoo, a fictional character from NewJeans‘ “Ditto” music video, features the daily lives of NewJeans members. The channel serves as a fan service platform and has approximately 660,000 subscribers, owned by Dolphiners Films.

The situation became contentious after Min Hee-jin was removed as CEO of ADOR, with Kim Joo-young taking over. Following this leadership change, the videos related to NewJeans on the Ban Heesoo channel generated controversy.

Shin Woo-seok, the CEO of Dolphiners Films, explained that his team was instructed by ADOR to delete the videos, prompting him to initially make all the videos private.

On September 9th, ADOR issued a statement asserting that “Under the music video production contract between ADOR and Dolphiners Films, all rights to the music videos and derivative works belong to ADOR. Sharing content that includes the NewJeans IP on Dolphiners Films’ channel without ADOR’s approval constitutes a breach of the contract.”

However, CEO Shin Woo-seok argued that ADOR’s actions were retaliatory, stemming from his support of Min Hee-jin during her legal conflicts with HYBE.

On September 10th, Shin Woo-seok took to Instagram to clarify, “All the content and channels we created were based on an agreement and will not simply vanish due to a management change. It appears ADOR is stalling for time to manipulate public opinion. Since they have not issued an apology, we will systematically release recordings, emails, and documents, and initiate defamation lawsuits against CEO Kim Joo-young and ADOR’s Vice CEO Lee Do-kyung.”

By restoring all videos on the Ban Heesoo channel, it is evident that Shin Woo-seok is strongly opposing ADOR’s position, which could escalate into a legal confrontation between the entities.

Source: Naver