On August 21st, DBSK’s first hearing occurred in Seoul Korea (click here for previous details of the lawsuit). Lawyer team of Hero, Micky, and Xiah (Yoon-Ho and Chang-Min are not included) claimed that the contract between their clients and SM entertainment was inhumane and therefore should be nullified. SM replied by saying that the contract was renewed 5 times with consent from both sides and legal.
When Lawyer team of DBSK was asked, “do you want modification of the contract or nullification?”, the team answered, “We do not know whether SM can support DBSK going from idol group to mature group. But we are open for all options.” SM lawyer team stated, “This issue is causing tremendous loss to the company and we would like to end it soon as possible.”
There was a discussion of DBSK lawsuit by various people of society on August 14th of 2009 in Seoul Jung-Dong Francisco Auditorium. Here are the comments that participants have made:
- 13 year contract that DBSK had signed mean over 18 years if you count their training period and mandatory military service. It is not well known but there were at least two kpop boy-band singers that attempted suicide because of this reason. Some wants to go back being a normal student but they can’t. (Korean Entertainment News Editor)
- DBSK performed total of 103 concerts in 68 months that they were active as DBSK. They circled around the earth 6 and a half times. They rested 2 weeks in a year. But they only received about $200,000 a year. (DBSK fan)
- Their daily schedule is insane and their privacy is ignored in the name of team work. The company demands the idol members to be thankful and not talk about money. Under this system, we cannot resolve DBSK problem. (Professor from Korean Art & Entertainment College)
In case anyone is interested, here is a pic from the discussion.
Lately, there has been many rumors regarding DBSK’s (a.k.a. Dong Bang Shin Gi, TVXQ, Tong Vfang Xien Qi, Tohoshinki) lawsuit. I thought it would be nice to clear up the issue and present a summary to everyone.
- On July 31th, three members – Hero, Micky, and Xiah – submitted an application to court to determine the validity of their contract with SM Entertainment (their record label, manager, etc.).
- Yoon-Ho and Chang-Min are believed to remain with the company. No official statement have been announced under their name.
- After their concert in Thailand, many saw that the members were divided in 3:2 when eating and doing other activities.
- Many believe that three members and the company were in a disagreement with long contract period (13 years), profit dividing policy (rumored to be 7:3 to 9:1 towards SM; SM announced publicly that it was 6:4), and cosmetic company that the three members and their parents operate (some fans claim that the members’ parents only operate couple of stores). This cosmetic company heavily uses the group’s images and name brand without a consent from SM Entertainment and became a hot issue between two groups.
- SM Entertainment have stated that 11 billion won (about $11 million) plus luxury car has been paid to the group. Members have stated that if that money is divided up equally among members and 6 years that they have been working, that amounts to 200 million won (about $200,000) a year per member, which is subpar in Korean standard for top singer.
- Penalty for early termination of the contract is known to be 400 billion won (about $400 million).
- SMTown Live ‘09 concert had been cancelled as a result.
- Many blame the company for ridiculously long and unproportional contract. On the other side, people point out the fact that the members all knew what they were agreeing to when they were signing the contract and the training system that members went through requires money to be pulled from the company’s active artists to pay for people in the training system.
- 1st hearing will start from August 21th.
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