JYJ3 Note: This article doesn’t reflect the opinion of JYJ3 Team, only the author.
The arbitration meeting date it’s set for August 10th.
There is no final verdict date.
The arbitration meeting date it’s set for August 10th.
There is no final verdict date.
Word out of Korea is the final
hearing/announcement of the verdict which was supposed to happen on
July 19 2012 has been delayed.
According to translated reports, the
reason for the delay is because SM requested a mediation/arbitration
meeting. Some say this is another SM delay tactic, while others think
SM is seeking a private solution to prevent having a public court
judgment entered against it.
According to a report, both parties “must adhere to the court’s decision once it grants arbitration”. (1)
SM applied for arbitration this last
time on July 11 2012. This may suggest that the Court decision is not
in SM’s favor and the company is seeking to end the dispute without
having a Court ruling against it.
But this isn’t the first time SM has
sought arbitration. Previous attempts at arbitration by SM failed,
which resulted in the restart of the hearings aimed towards concluding
this approx. 3 year case. (2)
Hearings in
the case were finally completed and a verdict was expected to be
announced July 19 2012. However, SM is still dragging its feet on this
issue.
This problem between JYJ and SM blew up
when the guys sought to terminate the ‘exclusive’ part of the contract
with SM, which gave SM the ability to have a massive amount of
master/slave-like control over not just the professional life but also
the personal lives of these young men.
The root cause of this dispute is not
really CreBeau or any other outside party. The main conflict between
members of JYJ and SM was their ridiculously lopsided contract.
Previous court rulings in this case
sided with JYJ that SM’s control amounted to unfair contracting
practices and laws in South Korea have since changed to try to get rid
of 13 year slave contracts.
The Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) have previously investigated SM. (3)
Earlier reports already revealed some of
the details of the contract between members of JYJ and SM. Its
important to remember why this dispute began.
Such lopsided contracts included clauses
like receiving no more than 5% of their album sales, and then splitting
that 5% among the 5 of them. (4) SM
assigned a manager to them. The group couldn’t chose anyone outside of
the company to manage them. And of course the manager had a built in
obligation to be loyal, first, to SM since he worked for SM.
SM could also decide to transfer all or
part of TVXQ’s contract to some other business if they felt like it.
Although they could object, there’s no reason why SM couldn’t use that
threat as leverage to ensure members would do exactly what SM wanted.
TVXQ (which includes members of JYJ) did
not receive any payment at all for appearing on TV shows where they
weren’t regular cast members.
IF JYJ were unable to perform their
normal activities for personal reasons, presumably like getting sick or
family emergencies, their contracts were extended by the amount of time
they took off. This must have been one of the reasons why they were
sick as dogs and still got on stage to perform.
SM decided what activities they would be
involved in and retained the rights to all goods, copyrights,
distribution rights, performance rights, karaoke rights and the right to
create “second hand goods regarding any compositions, arrangements or
lyrics done” by all of TVXQ.
SM was allowed to give any song composed by any member of TVXQ (JYJ) to anybody else without the consent of the members.
Although SM incurred all production fees
for an album, they were also contractually obligated to all profits.
From the translated report Clause 8 (P.R. and Production Fees):
“3. For the production of albums
that is done by ‘A’ and ‘B’, all responsibility including production
fees is incurred by ‘A’ and ‘A’ is entitled to all profits or losses.“ (4)
A = SM
B = TVXQ
B = TVXQ
6 months before any termination of the contract, TVXQ are contractually obligated to produce an album.
If SM decides to stop the activities of
TVXQ, they want TVXQ to compensate SM… even though it was SM’s decision
to stop activities.
In addition, SM had control over the
personal lives of each member. If TVXQ were scheduled so tight that the
members only had 2 hours of sleep, then so be it.
The members also had to get permission
from SM before they could invest in any outside company, which in effect
gave SM total control over the little amount of money the members were
paid.
And how much compensation did SM seek
if TVXQ didn’t complete their obligations? SM wanted 3 TIMES the amount
of money they initially invested into the group, PLUS 2 TIMES the
“predicted profit” that would have been gained if the contract had not
been terminated.
With a contractual setup like this, SM
could claim any astronomical amount of investment along with any
astronomical amount of “predicted profit”, which would be impossible for
anybody to pay. Thus, having the affect of keeping the group with the
company.
What was SM’s legal obligations to JYJ?
The only obligation they had to the guys was to “maintain the
popularity” of TVXQ and to “quickly report the schedule” to them.
….That’s it.
Moreover, apparently they wanted the
members to sign away their rights to file a lawsuit if there was ever a
dispute. According to the translated contract, in Clause 12 (Disputes and other responsibilities):
“If any misunderstandings occur
due to a communication error in the contract, the problem is to be
solved in a mutual agreement by ‘A’ and ‘B’ based on trust.”
Based on trust? Seriously?
And lord only knows what else the members had to deal with before they finally left.
Again, its important that we realize
just why JYJ is in this legal dispute to begin with. Its not a simple
situation nor employee greed. There are some serious legal problems
which required a Court’s attention.
Now with SM seeking arbitration… again… we are left to wonder what if any resolution can be made by the two parties alone.
Posts
0 komentar:
Post a Comment