Thread by @bruh8842

Found an article which goes through the entire session

1. Background :

ADOR is suing Dolphin Kidnapping Group (director Shin Woo-seok’s company) for 1.1 billion won in damages. The issue began when Shin uploaded a NewJeans video which ADOR owns to his own YouTube channel instead of HYBE/ADOR’s official channel. After ADOR questioned him, Shin deleted all NewJeans videos from another unofficial fan channel he ran (“Ban Hee-soo”), and fans became angry at ADOR.

ADOR says the ETA director’s cut should have been uploaded to HYBE’s official channel, which has 78.7 million subscribers. Instead, Shin uploaded it to his own channel with only 480,000 subscribers. ADOR claims this caused financial loss to HYBE and ADOR and gave benefits to Dolphin Kidnapping Group. ADOR also says Shin released the video without permission and damaged ADOR’s reputation.

2.Mhj appeared as a witness for shin’s side

Min Hee-jin appeared in court as a witness, on behalf of Dolphin Kidnapping Group. This was her first time appearing in a lawsuit unrelated to her own stock dispute.

Min testified that in the industry, it is normal for music video directors to upload completed projects to their own social media or websites, not just the company’s channels. She said written contracts are unusual and that most agreements are verbal. According to her, doing everything in writing would create too much paperwork.

Min stated that the upload was verbally agreed upon in a meeting with five people, including Thor, the Vice President of Creative at Apple. She said she had the authority to approve the upload because she was the CEO and producer. Min said it would make no sense for her to ask Apple for permission when ADOR owns the copyright.

3.why she picked that clown Shin and the approval to upload on his site

Min said Shin is not originally a music video director. She said when she doesn’t use industry-standard directors, she usually ends up tired and stressed, so she normally avoids that. But she explained that Shin believes the structure and production approach of music videos should change to become creative. According to Min, Shin didn’t even want to shoot the video, but she wanted to create meaningful work and believed in his creativity. She said she wanted to use his “sense,” and although the word “trust” felt strange to her, she wanted to use his instincts and let him express his creativity.

Regarding the upload itself, she said the approval was of course verbal. She repeated that the copyright belongs to ADOR, and since she was CEO and producer at the time, she had the authority to approve it. She said it would be strange for her to ask Apple for permission.

When ADOR claimed, “Wouldn’t that decrease YouTube revenue?”,
Min replied, “That’s a foolish and absurd argument.”

She clarified that from her perspective, that’s how ridiculous the claim sounds. She argued that uploading to Dolphin Kidnapping Group’s channel benefits ADOR because it exposes the video to a wider audience not just fans who follow idol content.

Min said after she was removed from ADOR, she received an email about this from ADOR. She said Kim Ye-min, her manager , reported the email to her but she didn’t reply. She said that Lee Do-kyung kept asking whether they had discussed the matter, and Min and her team wondered why HYBE was nitpicking again, because they already felt HYBE was trying to harass her with various tactics. She also said she found it strange that they even asked. Regarding the email’s content, she said “I’m not an important person, and I don’t remember.”

4. Mhj vs shin vs Ador back and forth on the video upload

When asked about Shin taking down the video later, Min sighed and said she thought ADOR’s behavior was unreasonable. She said ADOR wrote a contract on their own and then claimed damages when they said a part of it was violated. She called this abusing the law and added that there are “legal tricksters” who do things like this even when there is no actual damage or victim.

ADOR then questioned Min about Shin posting a message on SNS saying, “It must be a tough time, stay strong.” Min said HYBE was imagining things and that she never asked Shin to upload it. When ADOR asked whether this was part of building negative public opinion against HYBE, Min said this trial was not about that issue and refused to answer.

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Regarding the teaser of the director’s cut posted by Shin, Min said she approved it. She said they had discussed this even before the official meeting, during filming. She explained they never know how many pieces of content will be made until after shooting. She said if there are 10 usable clips, they release 10, and if there’s only one, they release one. She said this cannot be done with written paperwork.

ADOR asked if Min gave Shin permission to upload a video that belonged to Apple. Min answered "I mentioned this plan during the verbal agreement, so it was agreed upon at that time." The court also pointed out, "If you remember, answer as you remember. If you don't know, say you don't know, and there's no need to speculate."

So regarding shin guys post “coming soon” teaser, Min said she didn’t need to approve it, it was already agreed verbally. She said they don’t post things randomly and always post at the right timing. She said having Apple VP Thor in the meeting is “objective evidence.”

5. They asked Mhj if she was funnelling money to shin so he could hit his profit mark

When asked why she handled an exclusive contract verbally, Min said all staff run things verbally and wondered why only Shin is being singled out. ADOR then stated that ADOR paid Dolphin Kidnapping Group about 3.3 billion KRW, which is 25% of their annual revenue. ADOR also presented a separate agreement stating Dolphin Kidnapping Group must reach 18 billion KRW profit by 2026 and questioned whether Min funneled work to help them reach that number.

Min became angry and said ADOR didn’t understand contracts. She said if Shin was being favored, his labor costs would have been higher, and that accusing her of funneling work is a false accusation.

ADOR then asked if she knew about the contents of the shareholder agreement. Min first said she didn’t know. When asked if she received the document from Shin, she admitted she did. She said she didn’t review it and simply forwarded it, and that the vice president probably reviewed it instead. She added that the person who asked her the question didn’t understand field-level work because they were not directly involved in the project.

When ADOR suggested she gave up revenue by uploading to Dolphin Kidnapping Group, Min said that channel doesn’t earn money and she pursued intangible creative value that she considers higher than what ADOR was talking about. When ADOR pointed out that NewJeans’ SNS has 380,000 followers while Dolphin Kidnapping Group has 180,000, Min said each creator has different value. She said Shin is a “star,” and follower numbers don’t reflect influence.

ADOR asked why she didn’t upload to HYBE’s massive 78.7M channel but instead uploaded to Dolphin’s smaller channel. Min said:

“That was my intention. It’s more fun that way.Uploading on HYBE is boring.
My content goes viral because I do unexpected things.”

She said Dolphin Kidnapping Group did not receive special benefits because the channel was not monetized.

When the judge asked her if directors normally upload music videos themselves, Min said they usually do so for portfolio reasons, though she doesn’t remember specific cases. She said the shins director’s cut caused huge buzz inside ADOR and people were curious about the ending and whether it would lead to a unique promotion. She said she doesn’t understand why ADOR is nitpicking this.

The next hearing will be held on December 9.
I got a headache with this anyways will upload if I read something I missed out

m.tvdaily.co.kr/article.php?ai…