Korea Music Copyright Association list 20 plagiarized songs

A total of 20 songs have been swept up in legitimate plagiarism controversies since 2000, and it has recently been revealed by the Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting & Communications that the royalties earned by these songs total to $1,724,138 USD.

Jin Sungho of the Committee revealed a series of documents submitted by the Korea Music Copyright Association describing the situation behind royalties received by composers that have plagiarized. According to the document, the court has found a total of 20 songs to be plagiarized, some including MC Mong’s “Letter to You,” Hyori’s “I’m Back” and “Swing,” Lee Seung Ki’s “Mask,” Son Dambi’s “Saturday Night,” Lee Seung Chul’s “Scream,” CNBlue’s “Loner,” and GDragon’s “Heartbreaker.” The problem lies in the fact that royalty payments of nearly $250,000 USD per song were paid without any clear standards, totaling nearly 2 million USD.

Upon further investigation reveals that in the case of song ‘Q,’ which was released in 2009, totaled $250,000 USD in royalties in the year it’s been active.

In the case of song ‘R,’ it received $230,000 USD in royalties since its release in 2004. Out of the 20 plagiarized songs listed over the past 10 years, nine songs were paid over $100,000 USD in royalties.

The most recent controversial song ‘G’ also received $700 USD in the four months it was active.

Jin Sungho went on to state, “To plagiarize is to steal a creation by someone else. It is unjust for royalties to be paid when songs are found to be plagiarized and/or suspected to be plagiarized. We will be aggressively pressing the government offices to create a guideline on plagiarism in order to protect the rights of music producers.”