FIFTY FIFTY controversy: The Givers’ Ahn Sung Il, situation of changing copyright holder revealed
The recording of The Givers’ CEO-producer Ahn Sung Il, who is in conflict with the agency Attrakt regarding rookie girl group FIFTY FIFTY’s incident, has been released.
Dispatch exclusively reported this on July 6th.
Dispatch denounced The Givers’ CEO Ahn Sung Il as “deceitful” regarding the copyright issue.
1. Ahn Sung Il refuted.
2. “Attrakt paid $9,000 (12 million won) and held the neighboring right, which is the producers’ right.” (Ahn Sung Il)
3. In summary, Attrakt bought the neighboring copyright for $9,000.
4. Ahn Sung Il continued his explanation.
5. “The neighboring right is the producers’ right. Copyright is the right of the person who created the work.” (Ahn Sung Il)
6. He added an obvious issue (even at length). Is there any meaning between the lines?
7. We asked the Music Copyright Association.
8. “Do producers pay composers to buy the neighboring right?” (Dispatch)
9. “It’s right that the neighboring copyright is the producers’ right.” (Music Copyright Association)
10. Yes! Of course, the neighboring right of “Cupid” belongs to Attrakt.
11. Ahn Sung Il also knows that.
12. “The Givers does not have any rights to the neighboring right.” (Ahn Sung Il)
13. By the way, Attrakt paid $9000 to acquire their right (neighboring right)?
14. A sophistry as amazing as entering the Billboard Hot 100.
15. Let’s look at Ahn Sung Il’s refuting statement a little more.
16. “The Givers signed a rights transfer contract with the composers through due process, made the payment and held the right.” (Ahn Sung Il)
17. Ahn Sung Il admitted (belatedly) that the copyright was transferred.
18. It was not bought by Attrakt’s money.
19. Is the source of money the nature of the problem?
20. Dispatch’s thought is a little different.
21. CEO Jeon Hong Joon entrusted FIFTY FIFTY’s promotion to Ahn Sung Il.
22. In other words, Attrakt and The Givers were partners.
23. No, The Givers is more like Attrakt’s service provider.
24. But Ahn Sung Il deceived.
25. This is a conversation between CEO Jeon Hong Joon and Ahn Sung Il. (April 2023)
Jeon Hong Joon: SIAHN, the copyright fee will be huge. Congratulations.
Ahn Sung Il: There’s nothing much since it’s a decimal share.
Jeon Hong Joon: Aigoo, let’s do more fromnext time. Writing lyrics.
26. Ahn Sung Il participated in arranging the song under the name “SIAHN”.
27. CEO Jeon Hong Joon congratulated the jackpot.
28. Ahn Sung Il waved hands dismissively.
29. “There’s nothing much since it’s a decimal share!” (Ahn Sung Il)
30. We checked the copyright rate of “Cupid”.
31. SIAHN (Ahn Sung Il) 28.65%, The Givers 66.85%, Baek 4%, Song Ja Kyung (Keena) 0.5%
32. The percentage received by member Keena has a number behind 0., according to Ahn Sung Il’s remark.
33. Baek is an employee of The Givers. They participated in writing the lyrics and received 4% of the copyright
34. Ahn Sung Il told lies.
35. Dispatch obtained the content of a call between CEO Jeon Hong Joon and Ahn Sung Il in April.
CEO Jeon called Ahn Sung Il, saying “The investment company suddenly contacted me today. They asked, ‘You said you bought the song from foreign composers, right?’, and I said ‘Oh’. Then the Copyright Association investigated whether I was lying or not. They asked if Ahn Sung Il is SIAHN so I said, ‘Yes, it’s CEO Ahn Sung Il’. Since they can’t find names of foreign composers, I got to call you to check.”
In response, Ahn Sung Il reacted, “Oh, they investigate because of the publisher registration…Once it’s all uploaded, the registration will be transferred back to the publisher’s name”, adding “It takes three months for ‘Cupid’ to be uploaded. I’m a Korean composer. My name was uploaded first so that you would be able to register it.”
Before ending the call, CEO Jeon asked, “We have the receipt for the 10,000 USD we paid, right?”. Ahn Sung Il replied, “Of course”.
36. The three months that Ahn Sung Il said already passed.
37. When Dispatch raised the issue, Ahn Sung Il hurriedly refuted it.
38. He explained, “Invoice for the cost of music owned by Attrakt is called ‘Music Production Fee’, while Invoice for the transfer fee paid by The Givers is ‘Music Intellectual Property Rights Fee’.”
39. Why did Ahn Sung Il tell CEO Jeon that “it takes three months”?
40. Ahn Sung Il’s words are different from his actions
41. Dispatch sent a DM to 3 Swedish composers
42. Dispatch asked about the timing of the transaction, cost, terms, etc. in detail.
43. Finally, Dispatch found a point.
44. Paying the composers to buy copyrights? To put his own name as the composer?
45. An official from the Copyrights Association said, “I’ve never seen any case like this before”
46. A famous composer for idols criticized this method as an “absurd trick”, saying “Is it real?”
47. The composer added, “Just because you bought the rights from the original creators, it doesn’t mean you can remove the composers’ names. He may have purchased the rights with money, but he’s not the composer, right? Typically, the composers’ names should be mentioned in the ‘author name’ category, and the name of the person who purchased the copyrights should be listed under ‘rights holder.'”
48. Many other officials and composers of the Copyright Association agreed with this idea
49. After all, Ahn Sung Il still earns money no matter what.
