In today’s CMU Daily: HYBE is hoping it can put its dispute with Ador founder Min Hee-jin behind it after a court dismissed an injunction as part of her bid to be reinstated as CEO. But that seems unlikely. Meanwhile an internal HYBE document that is disparaging of rival agencies’ artists is causing controversy

Also today: The EU AI Act was welcomed by the music industry earlier this year because of what it says about copyright and transparency. But how useful the act is will depend on how it is implemented. To that end, the music industry has called on EU lawmakers to ensure the new rules are “made meaningful” 

Plus: A two year legal dispute between Adidas and Kanye West has come to an end. The sportswear brand canceled its incredibly profitable partnership with West in 2022 in response to his anti semitic rants. There has been legal wrangling ever since, but Adidas’s CEO says a settlement has now been reached

Court rejects Min Hee-jin’s attempt to get Ador top job back, as HYBE boss forced to apologise for dissing rivals

The CEO of K-pop powerhouse HYBE, Lee Jae-sang, says that the company now plans to “focus all its power” on “normalising” its Ador label, while supporting Ador-signed NewJeans. 

That comment was made in an email to staff commenting on the news that a court in Seoul has dismissed a legal claim by Ador founder Min Hee-jin as part of her ongoing bid to be reinstated as CEO of the label. 

It also followed an earlier public statement from Lee responding to a controversy that has erupted over an internal HYBE document that was discussed in South Korea’s National Assembly on 24 Oct, and which included disparaging statements about K-pop artists signed to rival agencies. With the very public dispute with Min still grabbing headlines, that new controversy has further damaged HYBE’s reputation.

The internal document was a ‘music industry report’ designed to update senior HYBE execs on recent industry trends, including updates on artists working with rival K-pop agencies. It came to public attention during a session of the Culture, Sports & Tourism Committee in South Korea’s National Assembly last week. Then 20 pages of it leaked online. 

According to Soompi, the report included comments about...

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Music industry warns of AI “malpractices” on an industrial scale, says EU AI Act must “be made meaningful” to safeguard creatives

The music industry has told European Union lawmakers that the copyright and transparency elements of the EU AI Act “must be made meaningful” as they are implemented across Europe. Doing so is “essential for safeguarding the value of Europe’s world-renowned creative content in a global marketplace” and will also ensure that “AI services generate outputs based on high-quality, diverse and trustworthy inputs”. 

The AI Act was welcomed by the music industry when it was passed earlier this year, though - at the time - the sector’s trade organisations stressed that it was important that the new regulations were “put into practice in a meaningful and effective way”. That point is reiterated in a new letter signed by various music industry organisations, as well as trade bodies from across the wider creative industries. 

It says that those industries are currently “contending with the seriously detrimental situation of generative AI companies taking our content without authorisation on an industrial scale in order to develop their AI models”. This, it adds, results in “illegal commercial gains and unfair competitive advantages for their AI models, services and products, in violation of European copyright laws”.

The AI Act went into force in August and is now in an implementation phase. This, the letter says, “provides a crucial opportunity to address such malpractices and ensure accountability in the AI industry”. 

Doing so should create a “healthy and sustainable licensing market” where AI companies secure licences granting them permission to use content in their training, remunerating creators and rightsholders. Assuming, of course, that the new regulations are implemented properly...

Adidas draws line under Kanye dispute with “no money going either way”

Adidas has settled its legal battle with former business partner Kanye West, with the sportswear company’s CEO saying that a dispute that has rumbled on for two years now “belongs to the past”. 

West’s incredibly lucrative partnership with Adidas, which sold products using his Yeezy fashion brand, came to an abrupt end in October 2022 after he made a series of controversial and antisemitic comments. The sudden early axing of the partnership resulted in various legal disputes. 

However, those have now come to an end, according to Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden. According to the BBC, he revealed during a conference call that there are “no more open issues” between his company and the rapper, after a legal settlement was reached. He didn’t expand greatly on what that settlement involved, except to say “there is no money going either way”. 

“There were tensions on many issues”, Gulden admitted, but both sides ultimately decided “we don't need to fight any more”. He went on, “When you have conflicts like this, you take provisions and you have legal opinions, and there are negotiations, and there are settlements being done, and this is the end to it”.