Lack of Copyright Awareness
All 'Jjaktung Goods' Disposed
Dong-gu, Gwangju (Mayor Im Taek) drew criticism for canceling a cafe featuring the girl group NewJeans just one day before its opening, despite aiming to revitalize Chungjang-ro. The project was pushed forward without consulting the agency or artists, leading to criticism over a lack of copyright awareness and waste of public funds.
According to local government sources on the 21st, Dong-gu planned to establish a K-POP shared cafe as part of the Chungjang-ro commercial district renaissance project in Gwangju Metropolitan City, with full operations scheduled to begin on the 19th. Dong-gu invested 50 million KRW in remodeling to create the K-POP shared cafe, with NewJeans as the first featured act.
After witnessing the impact of over 40,000 people attending the Chosun University festival in May to see NewJeans, Dong-gu Office intended to hold a "birthday cafe" event from the 19th to the 22nd, NewJeans’ debut anniversary. A birthday cafe is a fandom culture event where fans rent a cafe to celebrate an idol’s birthday or debut anniversary together.
During the event, the cafe was to display NewJeans albums, posters, postcards, and cups, and fans participating in the event were to receive NewJeans-related goods such as keyrings through a lottery system free of charge. However, Dong-gu Office abruptly canceled the event on the 18th, one day before the opening, following protests from NewJeans’ agency. The issue reportedly involved unauthorized production of “fake goods” without the agency’s permission.
The agency reportedly conveyed to Dong-gu a request not to infringe on the singer’s intellectual property rights for local government tourism promotion purposes. The agency explained, “Considering the circumstances and purpose of the cafe event, we judged that a public institution, the local government, was using the artist’s IP without permission for commercial purposes to promote tourism,” adding, “We took action considering that renting the space to fans and promoting related products could enable other companies to generate profits.”
Dong-gu stated that all souvenirs flagged by the agency were disposed of.
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