LEE SOO MAN, former executive producer of SM Entertainment, made his first public appearance in Korea this year.
LEE SOO MAN attended the Ordinary General Meeting of the International Copyright Association (CISAC) held at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul on the morning of the 30th and delivered a speech opening on the theme “Crossing the boundary of culture: a K-Pop case study.“
“As a singer, I wrote, composed, produced and created SM Entertainment to industrialize the K-pop industry and create a genre called K-pop to globalize the Korean idol industry. Intellectual property rights have become the most important asset in the process,” he said, emphasizing that the copyrights of creators must be respected.
“K-pop is a field that requires a lot of investment from the early stages of production. Before debuting on stage, K-pop must spend years discovering, training and nurturing aspiring idols. Today Today, K-pop was created through this process to surprise the world. Copyrights are a way to protect the material costs of creators such as producers and help them sustain their businesses, and SM Entertainment. also owns copyrights to various contents.” he added.
LEE SOO MAN also introduced changes in the way creators and consumers communicate due to the development of AI technology and chatbots, and mentioned the need to come up with protective measures against issues such as violation of intellectual property rights, distribution of illegal copies and plagiarism due to the development of AI chatbots.
LEE SOO MAN left SM Entertainment in February last year after selling his entire 18.4 percent stake in SM Entertainment to Hybe for a total of 520 billion won during a management control dispute within SM Entertainment. Currently, the entertainment industry is in a “loud mood” due to internal accusations against Hybe and Ador regarding the alleged management rights buyout, plagiarism and refusal of albums, but LEE SOO MAN has not mentioned the problem that day.
In particular, it was recently discovered that LEE SOO MAN had applied for the trademark “A2O Entertainment” through his private company “Blooming Grace“, and the possibility of his return to Korea was observed, but this was not mentioned. LEE SOO MAN agreed not to compete domestically for three years by selling his stake in SM Entertainment to Hybe.
Journalist: Shawn
Translator: Shawn
Source: SNS SM Entertainment
