On July 24th, Judge Lee Geon-hee of Seoul Central District Court’s Division 29 conducted the first trial of the lawsuit filed by IU against A, who accused IU of plagiarism. The trial ended after three years and the court decided to hold another trial later.
IU’s representative attended the lawsuit but neither A nor his representative was presented. IU’s side stated, “We understand that the defendant is currently living in the US”. They requested, “We would like to specify the defendant’s personal information through a trial process in the US, which may take about 3-4 months”, and the court accepted it.
The court said, “Since the court will have personnel transfer in January last year, we will finish the case before that”, adding “We will apply for a new trial date once the personal information of the defendant is confirmed”.
Earlier in May, A filed a complaint against IU to the Seoul Gangnam Police Seoul for violating the Copyright Law. Six songs suspected of plagiarism in the submitted complaint are “The Red Shoes”, “Good Day”, “BBIBBI”, “Pitiful”, “Boo” and “Celebrity”. Among the songs, IU participated in “Celebrity” (writing & composing) and “BBIBBI” (producing and composing).
In the first place, the complaint pointed out songs IU did not compose and part she did not participate in so it was obviously dismissed by the court. When the plagiarism allegation was raised, IU’s agency said, “We are aware of the fact that flyers containing plagiarism allegations based on false information and groundless rumors were distributed in some areas”, adding “We will continue taking strong action against criminal activities such as indiscriminate accusations and harm based on false information.”
In response, IU filed a lawsuit against A, claiming damage from defamation, infringement of personal rights and false accusation.
