The Korea Music Copyright Association decided to withhold the copyright fees for FIFTY FIFTY’s hit song “Cupid”.
On July 18th, the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) said, “FIFTY FIFTY’s agency Attrakt submitted a request to suspend the payment of copyright fees for the song, and after discussions, we decided to put the payment on hold.”
As a result, the payment of “Cupid” copyright fees will be suspended starting from July 23rd.
According to KOMCA’s regulations, they can consider withholding copyright fees when there are civil or criminal disputes between the parties involved or when there is an official request from the police or the court.
KOMCA said, “Due to the ongoing issue, we conducted a review according to our regulations and decided to suspend the payment on the same day. Copyright fee settlements do not take place every month, not quarterly, so the payment of copyright fees for ‘Cupid’ will be suspended from this month.”
Released in February, FIFTY FIFTY’s song “Cupid” drew attention as it entered the US Billboard ‘HOT 100’ chart. However, the girl group is surrounded by continuous controversies.
Earlier, Attrakt sued CEO Ahn Sung Il of The Givers, an outsourcing company they signed a production contract with, and three other people. Attrakt claimed, “In the process of obtaining ‘Cupid’ from foreign composers, CEO Ahn and The Givers secretly purchased the song’s copyright without providing information of the purchase to Attrakt”.
However, CEO Ahn said, “Our company carried out all tasks, including securing the copyright for ‘Cupid’ through legal procedures. In particular, we had owned ‘Cupid’ even before FIFTY FIFTY’s project started”, adding “We will take strong legal action against false accusations from Attrakt and their CEO Jeon Hong Joon as well as the spread of false information via media”.
Apart from the copyright issue, the two sides are also arguing over the music revenue settlements and responsibility for FIFTY FIFTY’s activities.
Source: Insight
